Northern Ireland should follow the prime minister’s plans for England and reopen the schools on March 8

News Letter editorial of Tuesday February 23 2021:
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

Days ago, this editorial column said that the UK vaccine programme should lead to a path out of lockdown (‘Success of vaccine should put NI on a path out of lockdown,’ February 20, see link below).

Boris Johnson outlined just such a path yesterday — albeit his timetable relates to England.

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The most striking feature of the prime minister’s education plan is that all pupils will return to class on March 8. Mass testing will be used. Students in secondary schools and colleges who test negative will resume face-to-face classes.

Mr Johnson also hopes to get shops open again some date on or after April 12. All restrictions on social contact could be lifted by June 21, but crowds at sporting games will not be allowed before May 17. The latter announcement all but eliminates spectators from the rest of the football season.

The PM has shown the right priorities — education trumps entertainment. Mr Johnson said yesterday he had always believed schools should be last to close and first to open.

Regrettably, schools were not late to close — a clamour across the UK (particularly among nationalists in Northern Ireland) led to them closing last March, before the Easter break. They were fully out until the autumn.

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The damage from such lost teaching will take years, or maybe decades to assess, but it will be considerable.

Children, who are by the far the age group least at risk from Covid, have lost crucial social and mentoring contact.

The poorest among them have been most vulnerable to closure of classrooms. Parents who cannot work from home have struggled with childcare. And exam year pupils have faced the trauma of uncertain methods of assessment.

NI needs to match the March 8 date of a full school return.

Few things have better illustrated the benefits to being in the UK than the vaccine programme, one of the world’s most advanced.

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As is happening in Israel, another global leader in the rollout of vaccines, it is right to think of how we can try to unwind the restrictions of lockdown, with their devastating impact on millions of people.

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Alistair Bushe

Editor