Gavin Williamson said he wanted school closures to be as "short as possible" after
delaying their reopening amid surging coronavirus cases.It comes as people are being warned to not to gather on New Year's Eve.
Some 20 million people in England have been told to "stay at home" after tier four was expanded at midnight.
They join the 24 million already in the toughest restrictions - meaning non-essential businesses must close, and people should stay home unless they have a "reasonable excuse".
Tier four restrictions mean residents must stay home unless they have a "reasonable excuse" and all non-essential shops must close along with indoor entertainment venues and businesses such as hairdressers and nail bars.
Areas of the Midlands and the North, including Greater Manchester, Leicestershire and Warwickshire among those added.
An intensive care doctor has also urged people not to gather and said those who do not wear masks have "blood on their hands".
Prof Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London, said: "It is making me actually very angry now that people are laying the blame on the virus, and it is not the virus, it is people, people are not washing their hands, they are not wearing their masks."
NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis called on people to show restraint, saying it was "absolutely vital" people stayed home and did not mix.
The warnings came after the UK announced the approval of a second vaccine for coronavirus, the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, with the first doses due to be given on Monday.
On Wednesday the UK recorded a further 50,023 new Covid cases, as well as 981 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test - more than double Tuesday's total.
On Wednesday, Mr Williamson announced that secondary schools across most of England are to remain closed for an extra two weeks for most pupils, to help regain control of coronavirus.
Primary school pupils in at-risk areas will also not return to school as planned on Monday - when term is due to start.
The education secretary told BBC Breakfast that remote learning would be "mandatory" from the week commencing 11 January for all secondary students, other than years 11 and 13 who would physically return to school on that date.
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Defending the delay to term, he said the government was "battling this hidden enemy" saying there was £78m of funding for schools to get testing up and running.
Equipment such as personal protective equipment (PPE) would be delivered next week and there would be support from the military.
As soon as news emerged of the new faster-spreading variant questions began to be asked about schools.
An analysis by Public Health England released this week showed there was no evidence it was more able to infect children than other variants.
But that does not mean infection rates have not been rising among children.
As with all age groups, the proportion of school children testing positive increased during December - with more virus around there was more transmission.
Primary school children however still remain one of the age groups with the lowest infection rates.
But the sheer scale of the infection levels in the worst-hit areas means ministers wanted to buy themselves time, hence some primaries will remain closed.
If large numbers of pupils and staff need to isolate, it makes the smooth-running of schools impractical.
Ministers are hoping mass testing coupled with the tougher restrictions - three-quarters of England are now in the highest tier - will be enough to curb infection levels and keep a lid on the spread in schools.
But it is clear they will have to tread carefully to achieve that.
Mr Williamson said more than 85% of primary schools were reopening on Monday and that he wanted any closures to be "short".
At a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the "sheer pace of spread of new variant means we have to take tougher action in some areas".
But teaching unions said the move did not go far enough, and one labelled it another "last-minute mess". They have been calling for a working test-and-trace system since before schools returned from the lockdown in September.
Pepe Di'Iasio, headteacher of Wales High near Rotherham and vice-president of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he thought everyone in the country had known there was "going to be a surge" in January.
He said: "We've all seen this coming and we would have preferred to have been able to plan for this before the end of last term so that parents can be made aware of it, so that students can be made aware of it and so that the teachers themselves can make sure that their plans are in place to deliver education from next Monday."
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Covid-19: School closures will be 'as short as possible' - BBC News
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