Education has been a major but overlooked casualty of the Covid crisis

News Letter editorial for February 3, 2022:
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

For parents of school age children, the strains of the pandemic have been considerable. While many restrictions are easing, things are far from back to normal in schools.

Young people were always unlikely to get seriously ill with the coronavirus and the omicron variant seems to pose even less of a threat. However, many mild coughs, sneezes and sore throats are turning out to be Covid, when children take lateral flow tests.

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When a child is deemed to be a ‘close contact’ of somebody who tested positive for the coronavirus, they must take these tests for 10 consecutive days, to avoid self-isolation. For many pupils, this countdown is reset almost daily, as they are repeatedly in contact with new cases of omicron.

School staff are experiencing similar problems, with principals struggling to avoid some classes being cancelled.

The authorities argue that this situation is justified due to the current prevalence of omicron and pressures on the health service. Clearly, though, it is not sustainable in the longer term.

Children’s education has been a prominent but rather overlooked casualty of the pandemic response.

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It may not seem significant that pupils are missing a week or two of school in these winter months, but any absences are on top of two badly disrupted academic years for most of our young people.

Sadly, more affluent families were often better equipped for home-schooling and remote learning when the lockdown was in place.

There will be many children who are still struggling to catch up and they are unlikely to be helped by more time away from the classroom.

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