TO the relief of many, pupils return to school on Monday week.
It’s been a tempestuous time as the lock-down saw schools closed and exams cancelled.
And it wasn’t just the pupils who suffered as parents, many of them furloughed and unsure of their jobs, struggled with home-schooling.
The Prime Minister rightly hopes that the return will apply universally across the country.
It’s “morally right”, he adds.
I agree, not only because children should be at school, but parents can then return to work.
Here in South Dorset, we’ve done well, providing onsite schooling throughout lock-down for the children of key workers and those with special educational needs, in early years’ settings, schools and colleges.
It’s been no mean feat, for which Dorset education and the teachers involved deserve our gratitude.
Their task now is to ensure that schools provide a safe environment, a mission complicated by constant updates from central government.
This week, for example, it was confirmed that older children must wear facemasks when moving between classes, although that’s only applicable in local lock-down areas.
However, any inconveniences pale into insignificance when compared to the damage this shut-down has caused.
Research given to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies – known as SAGE - found 70 per cent of parents believe their children’s mental health has been adversely affected.
Worse, it added that the shock to this cohort of children will “persist and affect their educational and work outcomes for the rest of their lives,” with disadvantaged children worst off.
Of course going back to school is a risk, but life’s a risk, and we must deal with it proportionately.
We cannot allow our children’s futures, and the country’s, to be blighted any longer.