No one wants education to be disrupted, but ministers must explain why they think classrooms are safe
There is perhaps no area of life and public policy that more clearly illustrates the double-edged nature of decision-making during the pandemic than education. While businesses face huge difficulties that are only surmountable if the government provides sufficient compensation, the issue for schools is that there is simply no way to make up to children for months of lost learning, and time away from teachers and peers. For university students and their families too, a phase of life that should be all about expanding horizons has in some cases seen walls closing in – quite literally at universities including Manchester Metropolitan, where 1,700 students were told to self-isolate.
But while it is quite right that schools being open is seen as a priority, the harm that would be caused by sending children home again should not blind anyone to the risks of keeping them in crowded classrooms. On Thursday, shops, offices and nearly all other buildings in England where people congregate – apart from health settings – will empty for safety reasons (different rules apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland, while a 17-day “firebreak” in Wales, which included the closure of schools to all pupils in year 9 and above, ends next week).
