A generation will suffer if our schools stay shut – Anne Longfield

Education is now there for all, but it doesn’t deliver for all equally. Our education system remains beset with inequalities based on income, race and region.

The same issues that have held Yorkshire back economically continue to hold our children back. Last year in Yorkshire and the Humber, 11,000 children left the education system at 19, after 14 years of full-time education, without five GCSEs or the technical equivalents.

Of these, 30 per cent were children eligible for free school meals.

These are shocking numbers.

That is why the announcement that not all children will be returning to primary school before September, and that some children in secondary may not return even then, is so worrying.

The impact of the coronavirus lockdown, and children being kept out of school for such a long time, is likely to worsen the prospects of the most disadvantaged children, including many children growing up in the North.

In Yorkshire alone, more than 800,000 children a week would normally be at school or nursery. Following this week’s announcement, it seems likely that at least 450,000 children in Yorkshire will spend more than six months out of the classroom.

The temporary closures of school was absolutely necessary to stop the spread of Covid-19. We now need to face up to the huge cost many children have borne by being out of school.

If we don’t, we will have a generation of children whose prospects are lost because of the education they haven’t received.

Some will say that children have been fine learning at home, and for some families it has been. Certainly many schools and teachers have been delivering enormous support and going above and beyond the call of duty to support the most vulnerable children.

But one survey in April found that for schools in the most deprived areas, 90 per cent of teachers believed their pupils to be doing less than two hours learning a day. This has been confirmed by three further studies.

There are also the lost benefits children gain just from being in school – the social and emotional benefits, and structure. The ability to think confidently and creatively and communicate your ideas clearly. I am deeply concerned that some children will regress in these basic skills while not at school.

We already know that 40 per cent of the existing disadvantage gap is caused by the summer holidays. Children in families without the time, resources, space or knowledge to support home learning were already disadvantaged, and many have been dealt a hammer blow by Covid-19.

We also know there are many more of these families in Yorkshire and that is why keeping children out of school is going to hit many of the region’s most disadvantaged kids hard.

In April, the Prime Minister announced education was one of the top three priorities for easing lockdown. Unfortunately, his actions don’t appear to be living up to these words. Neighbouring countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and France opened schools for all children weeks ago, despite having had similar infection rates. In Wales, all children will return to school in some form before the summer.

I cannot understand why opening schools is less urgent than opening theme parks, pub gardens and zoos.

The Government needs to be more ambitious. Schools will never be 100 
per cent safe for as long as there is no vaccine, so risk has to be managed. 
But billions have been spent on 
managing the impact on the economic and NHS – it is now time schools were included too.

We need a national effort for education on the scale of the Nightingale hospitals.

That means an ambitious government funded summer camp programme, where art, sport and supply teacher led learning can happen.

It means sorting rapid testing for teachers and children, finding temporary classrooms, hiring retired teachers and marshalling volunteers to do everything they can to open-up classrooms by September.

It also means introducing a ‘‘Catch Up Premium’’ like the one supported by the Northern Powerhouse, so there is extra help for children in the most disadvantaged areas of the North.

It would be ridiculous if children are able to go to Lightwater Valley this summer, but not back to school in September.

It must be a top priority for the Government to make sure schools in Yorkshire are ready to open their doors for all children by then.

Anne Longfield is the Children’s Commissioner for England. She is from Otley.

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