UK Govt Under Pressure Over Continued Schools' Closure

London, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jan, 2021 ) :The UK government faced growing pressure on Monday to detail a strategy to reopen schools in England, following a backlash from lawmakers about reports they could remain closed for months.

A dozen MPs from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ruling Conservatives have warned publicly that pupils risk becoming the pandemic's "forgotten victims" and demand schools fully reopen sooner.

The group -- which includes former Cabinet minister Esther McVey and Graham Brady, head of an influential committee of Conservative lawmakers -- backed a parents' pressure group campaign on the issue.

"We need to get our children learning again - with clarity from @educationgovuk and an education routemap out of the coronavirus," Conservative MP Rob Halfon, chairman of parliament's watchdog education committee, said on Twitter.

"The engine of government should be directed towards opening our schools. We face an epidemic of educational poverty and mental health otherwise." However, Halfon's bid to force a government statement on the issue in parliament Monday failed after House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle opted against selecting his urgent question on the issue.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is widely expected to address the matter later this week, and confirm that students will not return to classrooms after the mid-February half-term break as ministers had once hoped.

Johnson closed schools to all but the children of key workers this month as Covid-19 infections surged across the country, largely due to the emergence of a more contagious virus variant in recent months.