We need clarity now about schools opening
WHEN schools in England shut to all but the children of key workers, on the afternoon of Friday March 20, there was no plan for what would happen next. With little warning exams were cancelled, classes separated, curriculums abandoned and families thrown into a desperate world of home schooling and lessons by Zoom. For some pupils, learning continued; for many others education all but stopped.
That has to change and the Government is right to insist it will, after its plan to get children back before the summer failed. We cannot afford to deny young people a chance to shape their future, even as adults are allowed to flock to pubs and work out in gyms. Reports from classes that have gone back show both how much children have missed school and how badly many of them have been affected by its absence. Primary school children from homes where there may be few books have seen their reading skills go backwards. A-level students have missed out on a large part of their courses
— and in subjects such as science no amount of remote teaching can make up for the loss of practical experience.
So schools will come back — and stay open, ministers insist, even if local lockdowns start to shut other places where people mix. But will they be safe? And what will school actually be like, in an age of social distancing — something that is mostly impossible to achieve if school sites take back their full number of children. More testing, and clear rules will reassure many parents — but the Government’s determination to get schools open is not yet being matched by clarity about how they will work. With only weeks to go, basic questions still need to be answered.
Even if reopening goes smoothly, huge damage will have been done to many young lives. On Thursday A-level results come out, based on estimates. The Government needs to prepare for a backlash from families who feel candidates have missed out on grades they deserved. When GCSE results come a week later, the same thing will happen. Resentment at lost opportunities will hurt. That makes it all the more important that school life starts again, even as the horror of coronavirus goes on.
More testing and clear rules will reassure parents but we don’t yet know how it will work