Government must show parents scientific evidence on safety of schools: The Yorkshire Post says

IT is perfectly understandable that there is great reluctance amongst many parents to send their children back to school at a point in the coronavirus pandemic when so much remains unclear about infection rates in the young.

Families do not want their children bringing this dreadful illness home, and mixed messages from various parts of the scientific community about the risks, or otherwise, it poses in a school setting have only added to parents’ reservations.

Yet there can be no question that the longer schools remain shut to the vast majority of their pupils, the more those children’s futures and, in some cases, welfare suffers.

However conscientious home schooling is, it cannot be a substitute for the structure and expertise found in the classroom.

And for the poorest children with fewer opportunities to learn at home, there is a very real risk that the longer they are absent, the more they will fall behind.

The worries amongst poor families about sending their children back, identified in a survey by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, need to be heeded by the Government and addressed.

Arguments between ministers and teaching unions about when and how schools should return have created an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty, when what is required is reassurance for parents.

It is up to the Government to persuade them that the young are better off in school, and back that up with scientific evidence. Consensus, and not conflict, is needed. Poor pupils cannot be allowed to fall behind. A similar consensus is needed on every other aspect the lockdown. The north’s warnings that it is not being consulted about what is happening must be listened to by the Prime Minister. Beating this pandemic is a collective effort in which the strengths of the regions are of immense importance.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson