Frosty farce loses ability to amuse

MIDWINTER madness struck again yesterday as the ongoing saga of school closures turned to high farce.

Nothing illustrated Education's shambolic decision-making process better than the will-they-won't-they start to the day which saw some schools across the island closed while others stayed open.

It might have been comprehensible if it bore some relation to how hard the weather had struck in various parts of the island.

Sadly, it bore none.

So, while pupils in the north of the island got ready to get to the Grammar or colleges by bus or car their Vale or Hautes Capelles primary school younger brothers and sisters had to stay at home.

It beggars belief that some parents took a day off so they could drive past their closed local school with younger children on board on the way to drop off the older child in Town (where, ironically, the primary schools were closed).

Logistical madness.

And it was not a question of secondary pupils being trusted while primary were not as St Sampson's High also fell victim to the seemingly arbitrary closures.

It must have been especially galling for working parents in the north who looked out of the window and saw little on the roads except puddles from the fast-melting snow,

Sure enough, with the sun shining and temperatures well above freezing – as anyone who gave the weather forecast for yesterday more than a cursory glance could have predicted – most schools opened at 10am. The big freeze had finally broken.

However, unless lessons are learned and Education looks hard at itself, this looks set to be a recurring winter farce which is running low on humour.

First to go must be the notion that teachers are somehow different to other public servants – or indeed any other worker – and need heightened health and safety.

Second is the quaint notion that children whose schools are closed spend the day 'safe' on the sofa.