OT. Schools...normality and Coronavirus.
Still no football and someone had to put their head above the parapet to raise this one so it might as well be me.
I obviously wear several ‘hats’ with this but I’ll save that for later.
Currently listening to Michael Gove talking complete nonsense about schools and setting that alongside the very sparsely populated House of Commons (place of work) that he, increasingly occasionally, attends.
Clearly it is desirable that children go to school for the purpose of being educated. Equally clearly it is crucial, from an economic recovery point of view, that schools kick-start their ‘child minding’ function allowing parents to possibly return to work.
What however are the dangers? Children have been largely ‘self isolating’ for the last seven weeks or so. Now suddenly there is talk of them returning to school in about 15 days time.
The average class size in this country is between 25-27 although there is no way that we will see an imminent return of those numbers before September at the absolute earliest.
Much more likely is that children - and remember that in these circumstances it is no longer compulsory for parents to send their children to school - will be taught in groups of 15.
That means there will suddenly be 17 individuals placed in close and confined proximity during the school day, mixing (to an admittedly reduced extent) with a great many other individuals who will then all go home to their families at the end of the day.
I fully recognise the need to reopen schools, but at a time when my local (medium sized and many times the size of an average classroom) supermarket restricts the number of customers allowed in at any one time to 30, and at a time when I’m not allowed to stand within two metres of my own grandchildren does it make sense to reopen schools and how should we go about it? Thoughts?