Reopening schools a social priority

There are no illusions that this will be either easy or a quick process. Our policy makers need to be conscious of many things while making their decisions – one has to be the social inequality that the current constraints are amplifying.

This whole situation means very different things for different people, but what started out as an unprecedented health crisis will morph into a social and economic one.

Opening up schools again should be a social priority, because the inequality of opportunity at home could well have lasting long-term implications for a child.

Some will be being supported well, but others will be falling further and further behind, with a big impact on their future lives the longer this goes on.

Countries across Europe are looking at various methods of returning to schooling - some hard hit areas have already begun. Some are allowing primary school children to return first, before opening up the secondary sector. Consideration is being given to separating year groups on a rota to allow some teaching in schools, but with social distancing.

There is an argument for getting those in the first years of GCSEs and A-levels back in as early as possible too.

The number of active cases in Guernsey has been falling for more than a week, it is hard for islanders not to start looking elsewhere and wondering what the next steps will be here.

Government has announced an extended school closure with the intention of giving certainty, while at the same time rather ambiguously saying there will be a review built into that. Navigating our way out of lockdown will be much more difficult than entering it, but if you unlock a safe return to education you also begin to free the hands of the working population that are needed to drive the economy.

Equality of opportunity has been a catchphrase in education recently, even in these strained times it should not be left to become a faded promise.