Ex principal: Education is life-changing and it is shameful to deny it to children

Those once in a lifetime experiences lost.

School closures are the single greatest generator of inequality according to Dr Jay Bhattacharyya renowned professor of epidemiology and population at Stanford University in California. He calls it an “incredibly unequal unfair immoral policy”.

And the most vulnerable are most affected.

When pupils are out of school, teachers cannot pick up the early warning signs of abuse or neglect and children have no one who they can tell.

I can confirm after 23 years as a headmaster that for many children school provides the most stable and secure part of their lives.

The care and support they receive in school is crucial to their well-being.

Time at home leads to a loss of independence, fear of going out, fear of going to school with an accompanying large increase in eating disorders especially amongst the vulnerable.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported a “significant” increase in depression during school closures.

For children with special needs, the lack of multi-agency support has been traumatic, many parents too are on the verge of breakdown, a child on the autistic spectrum needs consistency, the in/out nature of school is doing irreparable damage.

Even before lockdowns child and adolescent services were stretched thin, lockdowns will exacerbate this.

Schools will need a massive increase in resourcing to cope.

On top of this, young people are stressed about their futures due to uncertainty about whether exams will take place and confusion regarding grades.

Universities and employers may be sceptical about what a grade actually means.

This is compounded by concern regarding their currency because of the different processes used in other UK jurisdictions which have traditionally provided higher education destinations for our children.

And they are being denied those activities which would relieve stress — sport, work, meeting friends, a social life, travel, church involvement.

Pupils have been sent home in seven out 10 of our secondary schools after September, in addition to the two months lost in the Spring and the weeks at Hallowe’en, some 130,000 school days were lost in Northern Ireland during two weeks in December.

Now they might be closed until March.

It is no surprise then that our children are going backwards educationally — the majority according to the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

The normal reading regression caused by transition from primary to secondary has hugely increased.

Clearly practical subjects will be badly affected due to limitations on lab work.

Further school closures are almost certain to increase educational inequalities.

Many parents are not equipped to support home learning. Pupils from better-off families spend longer on home work and their parents are better able to support them.

Education is life changing — it determines what you work at, where you work, what you earn, where you live, who you meet, your life style.

To deny our children education is shameful.

Children need to be at school, schools promote the social, emotional and mental development of children.

Haven’t they lost enough? Isn’t it time to put the children and young people first, allow the older generations to take responsibility for themselves and protect the genuinely vulnerable.

• Hugh McCarthy is a former principal of Killicomaine Junior High School in Craigavon

• Closing NI schools a disaster for children – principal

• News Letter Editorial

• Dr William Kitchen: Scrapping the transfer test this year could be the end of grammar schools in NI

• Ben Lowry: Covid will be used to undermine grammar schools

• Dr William Kitchen: Grammar schools in Northern Ireland are right to stand by academic selection

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers — and consequently the revenue we receive — we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor