Children are our future and need normal lives back
GENERATION LOCKDOWN
IAM starting to sound like a broken record. A weary, heartbroken record. For over a year I, and many other colleagues in wide-ranging fields, have been asking policy-makers to put children first during the Covid-19 crisis. They have not listened and continue to ignore us, despite a mountain of evidence amassing that documents the harms of their pandemic policies on young people.
Think about it for a moment.we have all been living through a disaster. Disaster planners are very clear we should put children first in these situations.we haven’t.
There are so many injustices being meted out to young people that it is hard to know where to start, but let’s go with education, schools and learning.
The education system is in total chaos. Having been denied access to schooling for significant periods of the past year more than a third of a million children are now unnecessarily isolating at home, having been identified as a close contact of a Covid-19 case.
Parents, in the main, are not allowed to attend sports days. End-of-term concerts have been cancelled. University students have not had once-in-a-lifetime graduation ceremonies.
Meanwhile, we have seen thousands of adults enjoying life to the max at major sporting events such as Ascot, Wimbledon and the Euros. What message does this send to our young people about their value and worth, relative to us adults?
Laughably, or disturbingly, in a week where we are told that nearly 100,000 pupils are persistently absent from school, the Department for Education launches a consultation on how to improve behaviour in schools. The disconnect between the elite and the reality of everyday life for the people they rule has never been so vast.
How have we arrived here?we are treating our children, our future, worse than third-class citizens.
Who in the Cabinet is responsible for voicing concern for young people? Who speaks for them? Do any of them care?
One might think that Gavin Williamson, as Secretary of State for Education, would take on this role. He clearly hasn’t.
Our policy makers continue to suffer from Covid-19 myopia while ignoring the myriad impacts of the restrictions we have placed our young people under.
They have been lonelier, more depressed and anxious, developed eating disorders and tics at an alarming rate, and have experienced more suicidal thoughts.
Unicef released a report recently indicating that 700 million days of education will have been lost globally in a few months.
Children and young people need predictability and certainty. The constant worry about someone testing positive for Covid-19, then many pupils having to self-isolate as a result, is an unnecessary burden that should not be shouldered by them in a post-vaccinated world.
Mass testing of healthy people has not been properly evaluated and the Government had to acknowledge last week that it can’t tell if this policy has been effective in schools because it has not been monitored.
As an academic teaching Evidencebased Practice with a hefty slice of critical appraisal, my blood is boiling.
Why on earth would you implement a testing system without monitoring or evaluating it? Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money have been frittered away on this shambolic programme. I’m incandescent
with rage at this wasted opportunity. Moving forward we need trauma-informed recovery programmes in schools – not a focus on poor behaviour and academic catch-up.that can come later.
First and foremost, young people need to return to a normal pre-2020 life as soon as possible. Adults must lead the way and help to model social norms and practices that promote recovery. Socialising and having fun will be key to this.
CRUSADE
CHILDREN’S Commissioner Rachel de Souza has spoken out about the impact of lockdowns and restrictions on children. I really hope she is heard in the corridors of power and can help persuade ministers that youngsters are not mere vectors of disease.
Young people are literally the future of the planet. How is that going to turn out for humanity if we cannot start healing and recovery for them – fast?
We need funding for grassroots groups to make sure children can have fun moving forward and experience nature, the arts, sports, baking and all manner of creative activities. They have been starved of these and we owe it to them for protecting us over the past year and a half.
What have we taught young people in the past 18 months? That they are less important than adults? What will they take away from the treatment they have received at our hands?
I literally shudder at the thought of this. If we put them first now we might achieve some damage limitation.
Never let them lose out