Why now is the right time to fix education - Jayne Dowle

By the end of this afternoon, we should have a clear idea of how the Prime Minister plans to exit the nation from the long, dark tunnel of the third national lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson during a visit to a school. Pic: Toby Melville/PA WirePrime Minister Boris Johnson and Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson during a visit to a school. Pic: Toby Melville/PA Wire
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson during a visit to a school. Pic: Toby Melville/PA Wire

Who would envy him this huge weight of responsibility? When he’s ‘listened to the science’, weighed up the opinions of his Cabinet and backbench MPs, many of whom are lobbying for life to return to normal ASAP, he’s still the one who has to stand in front of us and speak.

One man, with the weight of the world and the worst economic recession for 300 years on his shoulders.

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What would you do in the circumstances? If you could write a new set of rules today, what would be your way forward? With the rollout of vaccines for elderly and vulnerable people, I’d like to see restrictions lifted so that several generations of family could see each other again and travel where necessary.

For me, freedom of movement and family estrangement are the worst of all rules. I haven’t seen my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, who live in Kent, for almost a year. My sister rings me in tears, under immense pressure with work and caring for her in-laws, both in their late eighties.

My children haven’t seen their father – he’s in Surrey – since Christmas 2019 because he has a chronic medical condition and has been shielding. He’s now in hospital and can have no visitors, not even his own sister. What pains me the most is that I can’t offer any practical support. By the power of social restrictions, we’ve been left powerless.

This feeling that everything is beyond our control is extremely deleterious to mental health. More than half of the adult UK population feel anxious or worried because of the pandemic and almost a quarter report feeling lonely, according to the Mental Health Foundation. I would like the Prime Minister to have this at the forefront of his mind today.

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However, the first priority is to put all power behind rolling out the vaccines effectively and ensure that the second doses pending for millions of older people are administered as soon as possible.

And yes, I would also prioritise teachers and all school and college staff, including support workers. I’d willingly offer my place in the over-50s vaccine queue to any one of them, given that I work from home in any case.

Education is an absolute key part of the human chain, but I fear that not all politicians realise or accept this. Re-opening schools, clearly a key element of easing lockdown, cannot be botched this time.

With children and young people in school, parents can return in a meaningful way to work, even if for now, they do it virtually. This will help the economy ease into gear.

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Pupils can emerge from their bedrooms and re-engage with their teachers and classmates. Teachers can be released from the exhausting burden of juggling classroom lessons for vulnerable children and those of key workers, plus delivering virtual learning to the hundreds of thousands of pupils stuck at home.

Frankly, we can’t trust Education Secretary Gavin Williamson with something so precious. He’s going to need all the help he can get.

This is where the new Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, must hit the ground running and make her presence felt.

I make no apologies for saying this, but I’m glad that this Scunthorpe-born daughter of a steel-worker, former head-teacher and CEO of an academy trust in Norfolk, is from the North.

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I hope that she will put the interest of all children to the forefront of government, but like her predecessor Anne Longfield who comes from Otley, we need her to give much-needed heft to the plight of those in Yorkshire and the Humber, where educational attainment was already falling short in comparison to more affluent parts of England before coronavirus wreaked its havoc.

As she stepped down from her six-year role, Ms Longfield warned that Yorkshire education risks being left in “turmoil” for years in the wake of the pandemic unless the Government commits to its pledge to level up the nation.

In particular, she called for help with recruitment so that top teachers are attracted to work in Northern towns, extra tutoring for youngsters falling behind from a young age and help for parents struggling to provide the

support their children need to thrive at school.

There’s talk that once the Prime Minister has delivered his road-map for the way out of restrictions, he is to turn his attention to the levelling-up agenda which helped his party to gain so many seats in former red wall Northern constituencies at the 2019 election.

He must bring his new Children’s Commissioner on board forthwith, and in turn, she must prove she has the mettle for the mighty task ahead. Our collective futures depend on it.

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