The education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future. That is why it is a national priority to get all pupils back into school in September.
The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it – and we will do it. Social justice demands it.
Back in March, we had no option but to close schools to all but vulnerable children and those of critical workers, as part of our wider effort to protect the NHS and save lives.
One of the most uplifting sights as our country came together during the lockdown was the transformation of living rooms and kitchens into classrooms, as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children.
‘The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it – and we will do it. Social justice demands it’
Pictured: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting the Discovery School in West Malling, Kent, in July this year
For many, this was achieved while juggling the pressures of work and childcare, compounded by the mounting toll of the restrictions necessarily imposed by our fight against coronavirus – swings and slides locked up, playdates banned, grandparents unable to help.
It was – and for many families continues to be – a truly Herculean effort of which I will always be in awe. It was also supported by many brilliant teachers providing remote learning for their pupils, the thousands of laptops and tablets we bought and shipped to the children who needed them to access online resources, and the stunning creation of Oak National Academy, which developed an entire online curriculum in just a matter of weeks.
But we are in a different situation now to the one we faced earlier this year.
Thanks to the enormous sacrifices made by the British people, we have made very significant progress in our fight against the virus. The number of infections has been forced down from an estimated 157,000 in early May to around 28,000 at the start of this month.
Scientists have learned more about how the virus spreads and how we can control it.
Crucially, studies have shown that children face a much lower risk than adults.
This pandemic isn’t over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent.
But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.
Because there is ultimately no substitute for a child learning at school to give them the knowledge, skills and wherewithal to succeed in life.
It’s why we’ve had compulsory schooling in this country for 140 years, and the evidence is incontrovertible.
Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health. Sport England reports one in three children has done less physical activity in lockdown, with many suffering from poorer mental health, including through reduced access to vital support.
‘Time spent out of class means lower average academic attainment, with a lasting effect on future life chances. The less children are in school, the worse it is for their health’
Most painfully of all, the costs of school closure have fallen disproportionately on the most disadvantaged, the very children who need school the most. Surveys estimate that while the majority of pupils have been learning at home, as many as a quarter of pupils were doing less than two hours of school work a day.
Children in the richest families spent over 75 minutes more per day on home-schooling than those in the poorest, and one study predicted that the attainment gap between children from economically deprived households and their peers could widen by more than a third.
The Children’s Commissioner has reported increased risk of exposure to domestic violence, exploitation and addiction, both at home and on the streets.
The longer this continues, the more likely it is that some will tumble out of education, employment or training altogether, never to return. On top of all this, there are the spiralling economic costs of parents and carers unable to work without the school or wraparound childcare they depend on; and the devastating long-term cost looming from the stunting of our children’s future productivity.
This damage is taking place all over the world, with the United Nations Secretary General last week warning of a ‘generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress and exacerbate entrenched inequalities’.
We simply cannot allow this to continue.
Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.
I have always believed that talent is uniformly distributed but opportunity is not, and the first step to changing that is by helping those who have fallen behind to catch up.
So we are investing £1 billion in catch-up support, including a new £350 million National Tutoring Programme. We have announced £14 billion extra for schools and a new ten-year school building programme, as part of the Government’s mission to build back better.
But first of all we must open the school gates to all pupils once again.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has advised that the risk to children themselves of becoming severely ill from coronavirus is low.
Our test and trace system is up and running – already, it has identified almost 200,000 people who might otherwise inadvertently spread the virus, and advised them to self-isolate – and we have worked closely with teaching unions and school leaders on measures to ensure that our schools are Covid secure.
Grouping children into bubbles, staggered drop-off times, regular handwashing and providing schools and colleges with a number of home-testing kits for those who would be unable to access a testing centre.
It is a detailed plan for getting all of our children back to school in a way that is safe.
In June, we began the phased return of Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 and, after some initial apprehension, many parents reported how much happier their children were and what a relief it was to be back.
Now we must all work together to bring this best practice to the task of reopening schools to all pupils in September.
Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children and nothing is more important for the future of our country.