The Welsh government She said she chose to forgo her gradual approach to reopening schools and closing them until January 18.

This comes after weeks of debate about whether schools can open safely in light of the increasing spread of the new variant of the Coronavirus.

The current situation Education Secretary Kirsty Williams She said she was “confident” that “schools and colleges have to provide online learning for this immediate period.”

You can read a file Full details of the school closing are here.

Here’s all that Mrs. Williams said in her statement:

Good afternoon.

The Welsh government, in consultation with WLGA and Colegau Cymru, has agreed that all schools and colleges will transition to online learning until January 18.

As a government, we will use the next two weeks to continue working with local authorities, schools and colleges to better plan the rest of the semester.

This is the best way to ensure parents, employees, and learners are confident in returning to face-to-face learning, based on the latest evidence and information.

Schools and colleges will remain open to children of essential workers and vulnerable learners, as well as to learners who need to complete basic tests or assessments.

We have already made sure that schools have complete flexibility in the first two weeks of the term to schedule them to reopen based on local conditions.

But it is now clear that the national approach to online learning for the next two weeks is the best way to contribute to reducing the transmission of the Coronavirus.

We know that schools and colleges have been safe and secure environments throughout the pandemic and this is still the case.

However, we also know that open educational environments can contribute to wider social mixing outside the school and college environment.

We are confident that schools and colleges have the provision of online learning in place for this immediate period, and this will also be important to ensuring that students stay home during this time, learn and stay safe.

I know this announcement will raise questions for many of you, and I’ll try to address some of the issues in the topic below.

Please share this message to help educate others, and again thank you for doing everything in your power to help keep Wales safe.

Thank you so much.