To Shut Or Not To Shut?

Good afternoon and welcome back to this afternoon's blog. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours (not a bad idea at the moment) then you will have seen the Government's master plan of another month-long national lockdown beginning on Thursday. People can talk about sports and leisure centres, pubs and restaurants and what is an 'essential' shop all they like. However, what is the one place that every single day brings families, households and even strangers together? The answer is very simple - schools and universities. Have the Government once again overlooked a growing sector of the pandemic, and just how much of an impact could this have of hospitalisations, and ultimately deaths? 

Well, in my opinion, the very short answer is yes they have. Within a typical environment you can have up to 30 children and 2 members of staff (try and follow my maths here people). You then have 2 classes in each year group (remember a year group constitutes a bubble, not a class). On top of that, staff use the staffroom and toilet facilities several times a day. So if my calculations are correct (and trust me they are), then everyone who works in a school is bringing home somewhere near 100 different households every afternoon! And presuming everyone lives with their parents, that umber can become a lot more very quickly. Yes I understand that education is important, but should we really be putting children's education above everyone's health?

Well, in my opinion, the very short answer is no (I realise I am sounding like a stuck record right now). In order for children to receive a high quality education that they deserve, there has to be enough staff in good enough health to go in and teach them. While Covid is fairly uncommon amongst children, the staff are not immune just because they work with young people. This virus does not discriminate against anyone. Above that, children can be carriers of the virus as well. If one person within their bubble gets infected, my maths earlier indicates that around 200 people could be directly infected. And these are the same people who are expecting everyone to comply with another 4 week long lockdown. They want people to socially distance and be safe, yet they are asking millions of people across the country to ignore this, and actually put themselves at more risk than anyone else. Sankes!

A number of teaching unions are already demanding that the Government rethink their suggestion that schools and universities should continue to operate as they have been. The main argument is fairly water-tight - schools shut during the first national lockdown, so why is this one different? It's also worth pointing out that both medical and scientific experts believe that this second wave could lead to more deaths than the first. And it is not just school staff who should be worried about this - the parents have to be too. A large number of parents probably carers for their elderly parents who are a lot more vulnerable should the infection be passed onto them. This is a simple domino effect that begins in a classroom and ends up with an elderly grandparent on a death bed. And it is the current Government who are standing by and allowing this to happen.

So what is the alternative if the schools were to be shut down again? Online and virtual lessons are fairly simple with modern technology, and the arrival of Google Classrooms in March has made this even more achievable. Work can be set, completed, submitted and marked on a daily basis and groups of children can still have face-to-face lessons via a computer screen with their teachers. Whilst I agree this is not quite the same thing, they are still having the fundamental subjects that they need to learn. Even at GCSE and A-level standards, teachers can discuss the topics and set work for the students to complete. It will not be forever so let's just be safe and sensible to protect everyone, especially as we have the technology there and waiting, tried and tested and ready to go at a moments notice.

This article might be coming across as a long-winded and passionate rant, however, it seems like a reasonable proposal given the 'dire' situation that we are supposedly in at the moment. Unless, of course, we have been lied to again (very likely but a topic for another time, maybe, possibly). So in your opinion, should schools shut or not? For that, my readers, is very much the question.

Connor

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