THE Government is being urged to tell families and education leaders when schools will reopen amid speculation that children will not return to classrooms until after Easter.

Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Committee, said he has written to Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle asking for an Urgent Question to seek “clarity” from the Department for Education about the plan to get children back to school.

Speaking to the BBC this morning, he called on the Government to set out a “route map” for getting children back into schools.

He told Breakfast: “The Government said that the intention was to open the schools again after the February half-term – over the weekend in the newspapers it was indicated that the schools now won’t open until Easter, so that’s why I’m urging clarity for parents, children, teachers and support staff as to what the Government plans are because there’s enormous uncertainty.

“What I want the Government to do is set out a route map and what I mean by that is set out what the conditions need to be before children can go back to school more fully.”

Asked if schools should reopen if infection rates are still high, Mr Halfon said phased opening might be possible starting in areas where the coronavirus is low but that the public needs to know the plan.

He also reiterated calls for teachers and support staff to be an “absolute priority” for the vaccine once vulnerable people have been protected.

His calls were echoed by the Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield, who  has said families need “hope and clarity” about what will come next for children’s education.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that schools should open “as soon as possible” and called on ministers to set out at Downing Street press conferences what progress is being made towards reopening.

Ms Longfield warned that the closure of schools has had an “enormous impact” on children – affecting their mental health and widening the gap in learning.

“Children are more withdrawn, they are really suffering in terms of isolation, their confidence levels are falling, and for some there are serious issues.”

She added: “This is something for which families around the country will need hope and clarity about what comes next, and that of course is what the speculation we’re hearing really feeds into – that confusion – but also worry about where they as a family go from here.”

Primary and secondary schools were ordered to close their doors to all but vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers when England went into a third national lockdown in early January.

Boris Johnson warned that most pupils would have to continue with remote learning until after the mid-February half-term break.

And in the last few days Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said he hopes schools in England can fully reopen to pupils before Easter.

Mr Williamson said that he wanted to get pupils back in the classroom at the “earliest possible opportunity”.

“I would certainly hope that that would be certainly before Easter,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Mr Williamson said that a key criteria in determining when schools could reopen would be whether the pressures on the NHS had eased sufficiently.

He said the Government aimed to give schools a “clear two-week notice period” so that they were able to prepare properly to welcome pupils back.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister wanted schools to reopen as quickly as possible but refused to be drawn on whether it would be before Easter.

“If we can open them up before Easter then we obviously will do but that is determined by the latest scientific evidence and data,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.