Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, accused the Government of living “in a parallel universe” on the issue of setting up mass Covid testing in English schools and colleges.
Mr Barton said: “It is asking them to recruit and train large numbers of staff, and set up testing centres in an incredibly short timeframe.
“The support it has announced is nowhere near being sufficient.
“Ministers need to remember that schools and colleges are educational institutions, not medical facilities, and it has to support this testing programme properly.”
However, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson earlier told BBC Breakfast 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.”
