JULIE ELLIOTT: PM’s last-minute decisions are disastrous for our city

The decision to lockdown the country once more is the right one. Infection rates are rising across the country, and it is important that we do what we can to protect each other and save lives.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government are damaging Sunderland, says Julie.Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government are damaging Sunderland, says Julie.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government are damaging Sunderland, says Julie.

Unfortunately this means staying inside and reducing our contacts with others.

But the government’s habit of leaving everything to the last minute is disastrous. It is damaging to businesses in Sunderland who are trying to plan for the future, and it is damaging our children’s education.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Before Christmas, the Government were ordering schools to remain open, telling them to set up whole testing regimes.

School leaders and teachers worked through Christmas to ensure that our young people had the best education to go back to.

But students only lasted one day in school before they were ordered back to remote learning.

This was wasted preparation time for schools, when teachers could have been putting together online lessons. But the decision was left too late.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The move to learning from home brings in new challenges. As I have been making the case for since March last year, there is a huge need for the expansion of devices and internet connections to those that need them.

This is an extremely important issue for us in Sunderland and the North East.

Far too many in our community are unable to access the devices and the internet connections that they need, and the return to home learning puts additional and renewed pressure on families working from home.

The numbers are shocking. According to Ofcom, up to 1.8million children in the UK are without home access to a laptop, desktop or tablet, and according to the ONS more than 880,000 children in the UK live in households with only a mobile internet connection.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This is why I have called on the government to ensure that no child is sent home from school with no access to online education.

There is no time to waste. Children are learning from home now, and therefore help must be provided now.

Whilst the Government has committed to providing 1million devices to young people, this is only half of what is needed.

A wide distribution of devices and connections is the only way to stop our young people losing out on their much needed education, and this needs to happen sooner rather than later.