The last thing we need is the issue of reopening schools becoming a political battleground

It is no exaggeration to say that it would be a national disaster if children and young people were caught up in a tug-of-war between interested parties, writes Ed Dorrell

Children across the country have spent significant parts of the last 12 months being homeschooled (Getty/iStock)

Bringing down the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths – together with delivering the vaccine rollout with maximum efficiency – is of course the top priority of ministers right now.

However, it is no secret that fast catching up is the matter of the full reopening of schools: it is certainly at the very top of the to-do list when it comes to the imminent relaxing of lockdown.

The relaxing of the first lockdown included multiple priorities: getting offices, schools and hospitality open were considered by many in the government to be equally important. This time around, the only story in town is schools. Only once classrooms are again teeming with kids and teachers – and the R number has remained the right side of 1 – can we likely expect ministerial talk to turn to letting the public go for a pint.

This is at least in part because both Downing Street and the Department for Education know that achieving the full reopening of schools – without glitches – is going to require deep levels of planning and maximum political dexterity. A new study from the University of Warwick, suggesting that schools may not play a significant role in the spread of coronavirus, will have helped – but there are many, many interested parties pulling in different directions.

Even if the school gates are successfully thrown open, that will not be the end of the story. Attention is already turning to how schools and teachers can be helped to – or indeed forced to – get children and young people to “catch up” with the learning that they have missed out on, or even lost, while they’ve been at home.

Rumours abound of how ministers think they can intervene: extending the school day to allow for more lessons is known to be an option, as is adding at least two weeks on to the end of the summer term for the same reason.

Alongside skirmishes over the need to raise taxes or cut public services, contentious educational proposals such as these have the potential to form the first major political battlefield as the country attempts to get back on its feet after lockdown.

On one side you have the government, which was horrified to have to close schools in the first place, and which is all too aware of the damage that doing so has done, both to the prospects of individual students (social mobility has been set back a generation) and to the wider country (lost learning equals lost talent, which in turn equals lost opportunities for Britain in the decades ahead). Ministers are determined to repair this damage.

They are equally determined that the teacher unions should not be allowed to stop them. They are appalled that the bosses of these unions (once characterised as “enemies of promise” by Michael Gove) have not only been successful in delivering their messages during the 12 months of the lockdown, but have built both profile and membership off the back of it.

The unions themselves are, for that very reason, very much up for the fight. They are unlikely to take lying down the changes to their members’ terms and conditions that would be needed to extend either term dates or the school day. They have been emboldened by their work protecting their members’ interests during lockdown, and believe – rightly or wrongly (I’m not sure) – that they have public sympathy.

What does seem clear to me, however, is that the one thing that students and their classroom teachers, seriously run down by the gruelling months of lockdown teaching and social distancing, don’t need is to become part of a political battleground.

Luckily, there is good news. In one of the most astute educational appointments I can remember being made by any administration, at least since 2010, the government has made Sir Kevan Collins its “catch-up tzar”. A hugely admired figure, much loved by teachers and educationalists, who has a track record of delivery often in Labour local authorities, Sir Kevan is quite possibly the only person in Britain with the skillset and the contact book to deliver the catch-up the students need, and that ministers are determined to provide, without alienating the people who are essential to administer it – the teachers themselves.

Even so, the road ahead is a dangerous one and will need to be navigated with extreme caution by all concerned. It is no exaggeration to say that it would be a national disaster if children and young people were caught up in the crossfire of a post-Covid political battle.