Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Breakfast he wanted school closures to be “as short as possible”.
But he said: “We are having to take these steps on public health advice.
“I would hope that any closures will be short.”
Mr Williamson insisted he was confident schools will be ready to test pupils returning to the classrooms from January 11.
He said: “There’s absolutely no reason that schools won’t be ready.”
He said £78million of additional funding, equipment such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and support from the military would help them get mass testing programmes set up.
Mr Williamson said: “We really want to hold their hands, support them, help them. We’re asking everyone right across the country to do pretty extraordinary things at the moment.”
Drawing on his two school-age daughters’ experience during the pandemic, Mr Williamson said: “How much they (children) miss out by not being in schools, that’s why we’re taking these extraordinary actions because it’s always best to have children in school if it’s possible to do so.”
