It is good to see the Northern Ireland schools back — and they need to stay back

It is a welcome symbolic moment to see schools back in Northern Ireland.

The start of term is always a time of joy for pupils to be back among friends, mixed with sadness at the end of the freedom of the summer holidays.

This year though it has added significance in both respects.

The absence from companionship has been all the greater since lockdown began 18 months ago, ushering long periods of school closure.

And even those children keenest on vacations, and not having to do classroom work, will perhaps have come to see the downsides to long periods of listlessness.

It has been said that education continued almost as normal, with some teachers working harder than ever.

That is the case in some schools, but supervision has been very uneven. In England for example, where this a large private sector, fee paying schools have typically provided much more intense schooling than was available to pupils in much of the state sector.

Lockdown has worsened educational inequality, which was already a problem.

With Australia, once hailed as a world leader in its response to coronavirus, now abandoning its zero Covid strategy, it is far from clear which countries have handled the pandemic best.

But any inquiry into the UK handling of the virus must examine the possibility that schools were closed far longer than they should have been and exams abandoned too readily.

Children are at barely any risk from coronavirus yet lasting damage has been inflicted on the learning, and perhaps to their lifetime prospects.

We should endeavour to ensure that there is no repeat of such classroom closures unless in the most extreme circumstances.

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