Coronavirus, education, benefits and fears

The new scholastic year is set to open in the coming days when thousands of children are to return to the classrooms they abandoned in March at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. Questions on why this should be happening have been raised by parents, educators and society in general, and there are of course many doubts on how the system will work, whether all precautions have been taken, and what is going to happen should there be one or more cases in one or more schools.

We must remember that schools in Malta were closed at a time when the number of cases was still on the rise, and had not reached the proportions we had today. Six months ago, many countries had also resorted to closing down schools as a way to limit the spread of the virus. Even they have reopened or are reopening in spite of Europe experiencing a second, bigger wave. So why have the authorities decided to go ahead and reopen schools in spite of the risks? And what are the arguments being made by those who want schools to remain shut?