Masks block learning

The Government is expected to announce next week that facemasks are no longer required in schools. The unions will kick up a fuss. They wanted to go slow on reopening schools earlier this year, citing fears of a rise in transmission, and last week demanded that masks remain mandatory until at least June 21, on the basis that “rates of Covid are still significant”.

The unions’ claims are unsupported by the data. Official figures suggest almost nine in 10 secondary schools in England had no coronavirus cases in the immediate period after they reopened, and the latest round of the Schools Infection Survey found that infections were significantly down from late last year, falling to just 0.33 per cent of pupils and 0.32 per cent of staff. This has contributed to “wider evidence”, in the view of the study’s chief investigator, that “the risk of transmissions in school is low”.

Instead of carping, why do the unions not welcome this excellent news, embracing it as an opportunity to return to normal? Children have already sacrificed so much: masks are a barrier to learning they could do without. The sooner they are gone the better.

And why stop there? The unwinding of lockdown should be accelerated in the confidence that Britain’s vaccination programme is working: infection rates and deaths are significantly reduced. Of course officials are proceeding with care, but if we worked by the extreme precautionary principle favoured by some, we would be stuck with masks for eternity. They were meant to be temporary; they should only be temporary. The reward for the public’s self-discipline must be a speedy end to all unnecessary social distancing measures.