Schools are the key to ending lockdown

There are huge costs to keeping children at home for little appreciable gain in fighting coronavirus

Common sense would tell us that closing schools is an essential part of the lockdown to combat coronavirus. We know that illnesses can spread in schools, and we commonly view children as good spreaders of dirt and disease.

We also want to protect our children, and closing schools will feel like the safest course of action for those of us who are able to practise social distancing and who can control who we and our families see.

Back when the Government suggested that adults should work from home but schools were still open (only a month ago now, but it feels like an age), people found it difficult to understand why they might be changing their routines but their children were not.

However, common sense isn’t always entirely right. Emerging data on Covid-19 and evidence from the 2003 Sars epidemic tell us that schoolchildren probably play only a relatively minor role in disease transmission, and that closing schools is relatively insignificant in reducing coronavirus transmission.

Yes, it’s important to say that it’s very early days and we don’t have a lot of data, but what data we do have suggest that schools aren’t the big players many have assumed. We also know that schools have stayed open in some of the countries that have had the most success in controlling Covid-19, such as Taiwan.

So why is it that school closures don’t seem to have the impact we might think?

There are many unanswered questions, but partly it appears to be because children are not big transmitters of coronavirus infections. Additionally, the impact of closure is limited by increases in social contacts between children out of school and increased contact between children and adults. This is particularly a problem with child-grandparent contacts.

The other part of the equation is the very real harm that school closures bring to children and families. This is not just about the loss of education – although that is a huge issue.

It is also the isolation of children from the support they get at school – from the school system and from teachers and friends. This is particularly true of children and young people who are vulnerable or who have special needs, and particularly those from the poorest sections of our society.

I absolutely support the Government’s decision to close schools as part of the very stringent set of social distancing measures we are calling the “lockdown”. Every part of society has a role to play in combating this menace, and when we are staring down the barrel of the gun it is essential to put in place every bit of social distancing we can.

However, this lockdown can’t last forever, and we must think carefully about how we open up society in a safe and evidence-based way. Schools are shut now but this doesn’t mean that it will always be the best option. We must explore ways of them reopening more fully.

For some students, a combination of social distancing and education could be a viable option. School start times and finish times could be staggered, as could break times.

There is also much more that could be done to minimise extensive social contact in the context of schools reopening, perhaps on a limited basis. Half the school one day, the other half the next, for example.

One of the reasons to look at opening schools relatively early in the process of ending the lockdown is that if we keep schools closed but relax social distancing, we may see an increase in social contacts between children – or between children and vulnerable grandparents.

We are faced with a situation in which nearly nine out of 10 children globally are not in school without fully knowing how this will impact their lives and save other lives. Whatever steps are taken next, we cannot ignore the profound and long-lasting effect this will have on our children’s health, their later development and future opportunities.