CALAMITOUS INEQUALITY

Fine words about social justice cut no ice when, in the next breath, unions try to block a move that may avoid

THE wartime President of the United States, Franklin D Roosevelt, once proclaimed that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And at this critical moment, nothing could be more true – not least when it comes to the inflammatory debate about whether or not some primary-aged children should return to the classroom from June 1.

Let me make it clear, I’m not an apologist for this Government. I would have done things very differently over recent weeks were I still Education Secretary or a member of the Cabinet.

Yet the Government is completely right to ask primary schools to resume their vital work next month, while the continued opposition of the teaching unions to the move is both destructive and wrong.

Preventing children from getting an education will not only undermine dedicated teachers and the economy, it will punish some of the most vulnerable children in the country.

I have my own experience of the unions. In the course of my four years as Education Secretary in the first Blair Government from 1997 to 2001, I endured many clashes, some of which, looking back, were so trivial as to be laughable.

At a union conference in the build-up to the 1997 Election, for example, I was literally barricaded inside a room by hecklers. It was the sort of off-thewall behaviour which gave the profession a bad name.

Much has changed since then in education, and for the better –which is why I believe this stand-off between Government and the union leadership is a tragedy for children, their parents and, yes, for teachers themselves.

The great majority are dedicated to the best interests of the children in their care. It is hard-working, professional teachers who have agreed to keep schools open for children of key workers and youngsters genuinely at risk.

Likewise, tens of thousands of staff have stepped forward to offer some semblance of a curriculum via the internet. They should be applauded.

But I know from my own experience as a trained teacher that online learning is no substitute for the classroom. And that shutting down our education system undermines the seven million or so children across the country who should be at school.

Many of those pupils from disadvantaged homes have no access to a quiet place in which they can learn, let alone a suitable computer. Only one in seven of the vulnerable children currently entitled to a temporary classroom place has taken up the offer.

It is strange indeed, then, that the leadership of the teaching unions should be so vehemently against the gradual, limited and careful return to the classroom of those who stand to lose most from being stuck at home.

Every teacher knows that for some children school is a safe haven − a place free from the tensions, the poverty and, at times, the troubled adult relationships they find at home.

The Government’s entirely reasonable proposal is that four, five and six-year-olds, and those who will go to secondary school in September, should return to something resembling full-time learning.

Surely the unions should consider the damage that will ensue if we don’t take these limited steps to educate future generations.

I accept that the decision is not completely straightforward. Many parents, including hundreds of thousands who have signed an onli ne peti t i on against being required to send their children back to school, are frightened.

For eight weeks, we’ve had daily press conferences with alarming charts and dire warnings. Our own Prime Minister has been in intensive care. Polling across the world has shown that the UK has the most fearful population of all when it comes to Covid-19.

But we cannot simply lie down and accept the current situation just because there is no 100 per cent guarantee of safety. Life involves some element of risk whichever way we turn.

SCHOOLS are already reopening in countries such as Denmark, France and Germany, and the broadest scientific advice suggests that children are at little risk. A recent paper in the British Medical Journal from two experts at University College Southampton cites evidence from Iceland and South Korea – two countries with widespread testing regimes – that not only are children less likely to catch Covid-19, they are also less likely to spread it. Yes, reopening schools is a judgment call but if the evidence tells you that children are at no more risk of catching and passing on this virus than a case of mild flu, then it is surely clear where our priorities must lie.

It will not be the well-off, welleducated families who will lose out if we fail to act. Their children are often in well-funded schools offering something close to a full-time curriculum online. Such families often know how to support children at home or have the financial means to employ tutors in future to help them catch up.

It is a tragic fact that, if schools don’t go back until September, many thousands of children will not have had any meaningful education for more than 20 weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe we must move with care. All reasonable steps should be taken to protect both staff and pupils. Cleaning and testing are crucial. But while I agree that the very youngest children cannot be kept 6ft away from each other, I also believe we must accept minimal ‘risk’ based on the best possible evidence.

None of us can be kept apart forever and human contact, particularly for little children, is an important step in getting back to normality. We must use old-fashioned common sense to gradually unlock our nation, our social life and our economy.

When teaching staff have thanked those on the till at the local shop or supermarket, or have applauded social care workers, they did so in good faith. They know that those individuals were taking a risk on our behalf.

We, in turn, should applaud teachers for taking risks on behalf of our children, our grandchildren and our nation’s future.

This is not just in terms of their personal well-being and contribution to success, but also to reducing the inequality which will undoubtedly accelerate if we don’t appreciate and act on t he enormous damage currently taking place.

Back in the 1990s, I used to tell the leaders of the trade unions and those on the Left wing of the Labour Party that I faced a range of competing voices.

There were those who spoke on behalf of the t eaching staff (or said t hey did). There were some wellorganised parent groups who spoke for themselves and for their children. But it was down to me as the Secretary of State for Education to speak for those who didn’t have a voice.

So my call t oday i s very simple: we must abandon fear and embrace cooperation and common sense. We must not capitulate to t hose actively opposed to moving forwards, those who are ‘anti-government’ for the sake of it. Or those who believe it is possible to sustain full ‘furloughed’ salaries into the distant future.

We should, in other words, have a ‘ can-do’ rather than ‘ won’t do’ attitude and we should applaud those who are prepared to take on the challenge.

Fine words from Left-wing activists about disadvantage cut no ice when, in the next breath, they seek to do everything possible to block measures that might, just might, help to avoid calamitous inequality in years to come.

Whatever their employment contract states, the real contract that teachers have, as so many of them know, is their heartfelt contract with the children.

It is now time to reassure parents. It is time to change the tone of the daily press conferences so that they become measured, realistic and informed messages of hope.

It is time to change these charts and graphs to reflect the success of the nation’s combined efforts and the bravery of those who have been on the front line for all these weeks and months.

It is time to say that teachers must be – and are – a vital part of that endeavour.

We must not capitulate to the Left-wing activists who are anti-Government for the sake of it