First published in The Telegraph, 16 August 2020:
For millions of children, lockdown has been nothing short of a disaster. According to a UCL report, 2.3 million children have been learning for less than one hour per day. The NFER found that 40 per cent of pupils have not been in regular contact with their teachers.
The exams controversy and Ofqual’s Kafkaesqe ‘algorithm’ are merely symptoms of a more general malaise in getting children back to school. Perhaps, with greater determination, exams could have been postponed rather than denied and this unfathomable grades system would not have been necessary.
Given the epidemic of educational poverty and the additional risks to children remaining at home - from mental health to safeguarding concerns - you would expect the health and science establishment to be making every effort to ensure pupils are learning again from September. Instead, everything seems to be focused on the minimal risk to children and the possible risk to older pupils. This is despite schools opening in many countries around the world, with little effect on transmission.
Alongside the ‘computer says no’ attitude, sections of the unions have posed hundreds of questions about returning to school, alongside an ever-growing list of conditions. Questions and conditions that if applied to other workplaces would probably have seen supermarkets shut during the lockdown. Questions and conditions that do not explain why children can go shopping in Primark or eat at McDonalds, but not attend school.
With the exception of a few courageous individuals like Professor Russell Viner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics, the Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield and some children’s charities, not enough people have been campaigning to get children back to school. Few seem to have appreciated the dangers to pupils stuck at home and the potentially irreversible long term damage.
The attitude from quangos and unions seems to be that everything is impossible, rather than, as the great Sir Nicholas Winton of Kindertransport fame once said: “If it is not impossible there must be a way to do it”. It is heartening that many schools, teachers and support staff are ignoring the naysayers and continuing their preparations for a return in the September term.
But in order to defeat the defeatists, all the major education players need a serious plan for the weeks and months ahead. First, the DfE urgently needs a stronger grip on the impact of the lockdown on children who did not attend school, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. As the Schools Minister confirmed to the Education Select Committee, it has done no modelling to understand this.
Second, Government guidance to schools should be clear, timely and properly communicated. The NHS - understandably - had an action plan for Covid-19. The same is needed for education, including a detailed timetable and safeguarding support. There must be clear expectations as to the nature, quality and quantity of school learning and home education in the event of local lockdowns. Where a high number of teachers are not in work due to sickness, self-isolation or shielding, schools should be supported through a fully-funded national scheme to ensure pupils can continue learning.
Third, Covid-19 exposed a huge digital divide. The Children’s Commissioner suggested that 700,000 children do not have access to a computer or tablet. Schools could be given vouchers to spend on devices at their local Curry’s, rather than relying on a national procurement scheme.
There are vital lessons for other agencies. So, fourth, rather than the badger-like approach Ofsted has taken thus far, adopting a period of semi-hibernation during lockdown (excepting their work with local authorities), the inspectorate must be proactive in overseeing school efforts. While many Ofsted staff were deployed to local councils, hundreds lay semi-dormant. What a waste.
By the time they go back to school, most children will not have set foot in a classroom for six months. This will harm disadvantaged youngsters most. Before the pandemic struck, there was already an 18-month attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils at GCSE-level and their peers. The Education Endowment Foundation predicts that school closures will reverse all the progress we have made in reducing the attainment gap since 2011. What a sobering thought that is.
