7 - Ignorance in Covid/Post-Covid Schooling, 2020–21

Summary

This year [2021] more than any year, teachers deserve our thanks. It's too soon to know the true cost of the pandemic on student and teachers’ mental health but it's clear that the lack of clarity, the incompetence, the mismanagement of examinations, the bias, and the appalling lack of knowledge shown by government about the majority of children and young people's experiences of education have had a profound effect on attainment, on confidence, on a generation’s love for learning.

Kate Moss, “Letter to my teacher”

The scandals of the Major government do not compare with the debasement of democracy currently underway.

Nicholas Reed-Langan, “This government has unleashed something worse than sleaze”

Like millions of people over the two years when a global pandemic caused by a virus known as Covid-19 affected us all, I went through the stages of alarm, depression, resignation and just about coping! Although worried about children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues, I was not in charge of or responsible for children or students on a daily basis, but I observed the difficulties of many families, especially single parents, coping with the behaviours required of them as the government responded badly to the crisis. Just some of the issues were: lockdown in houses or flats, which was awful for those without gardens or access to parks and open spaces; the closure of schools with the expectation that parents or carers would “homeschool”; the efforts of teachers to provide online teaching and learning, or going into schools to teach vulnerable children (my daughter and daughter-in-law were among these teachers); the crazy shuffles over examinations, an increase in mental health problems and ever more inequalities between children. University departments closed down in early 2020, as did the libraries, staff and students suffered disruption, and by 2021 universities were still not able to workwithout restrictions. Just as we thought things were getting back to a new “normal” towards the end of 2021, along came omicron, another variant to Covid-19 to worry us all. I was able to keep writing, join the advisory board of a study of school exclusions, examine PhDs, struggle with Zoom and sadly wrote some obituaries for colleagues. The Africa Educational Trust that I had supported for years merged with another charity and some work goes on, despite government and other funding for overseas aid being cut.