School classes in summer would be bold but welcome step

Any suggestion that schools may not reopen at the start of the 2020/21 school year represents a body blow for thousands of working parents who have struggled to balance home-schooling with their own working lives for almost two months, with the prospect of a long summer at home to come.

Those parents deserve to be given some light at the end of the tunnel, as of course do the children who continue to miss vital parts of their education. Lessons conducted by distracted, unqualified parents simply do not equate to those given by trained teachers. It’s damaging enough that they are missing the last few months of the current school year, never mind the possibility of classrooms not reopening in the autumn.

There is also the negative impact school closures are having in terms of children interacting with their peers.

Education Minister Peter Weir was not clear yesterday on when schools will return. He didn’t rule out classes operating in July or August, when schools are traditionally enjoying a summer holiday. Such a step would be a bold move but a welcome one because precious education time has already been lost and there is a pressing need to make up for that lost time.

Whether such a step would win favour from teachers’ unions is entirely another matter of course.

Around the world education has been resuming. Schools returned in Denmark in the middle of last month, and they have also now done so in Japan, Norway, China and Israel. Certain states in Australia are also pressing ahead with phased returns.

Plans for the phased return of classes in Scotland and Wales have been openly discussed by their respective first ministers. A concrete plan should now be set out for Northern Ireland.