School closures put us at risk of creating a ‘lost’ generation of children

SCHOOL plays a vital role in every child’s life. That’s why the huge disruption to lessons over the past nine months is so worrying.

Millions of children have seen their life chances take a blow from which it will be hard to recover. And without urgent action to open schools — and keep them open — there is a serious risk of creating a lost generation.

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Online lessons are no substitute for good old-fashioned classroom teaching.

The biggest losers are those who need school most — children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

During the school shutdown, many better-off classmates soared ahead as their parents can afford computer kit and private tutors.

By contrast, so far only three in ten pupils have received help from the Government’s Tuition Programme, according to the independent Education Policy Institute.

There is now a real danger the crisis will undo enormous progress made in boosting school standards over the past 25 years.

If we don’t act swiftly and get children back to school we will regret this for generations to come.

GCSE and A-level students will lose out unless we decide soon what form the exams will take this summer.

But in the long run, primary age children will suffer most as they are less able to work online.

There are already worrying signs of growing inequality, as acknowledged by former Education Secretary Justine Greening.

Since Britain became caught in the grip of the pandemic, the gap between pupils doing well and those struggling has widened by as much as six months — a tough gap to bridge.

I was robust in the summer about the need to get children back to school and had some harsh things to say about the teaching unions.

But on this occasion I am more sympathetic, as it’s too much to expect them to teach online and be responsible for the testing programme at the same time.

We should mobilise the armed services and trained volunteers to help run tests now.

If we don’t get children back into school then hopes of a recovery will be undermined — at a time when resources and skilled personnel are rightly diverted on to vaccinations.

Let’s be realistic, it isn’t possible to go ahead with a full round of exams this year. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson should confine GCSE exams to English and maths and leave other subjects to teacher assessment.

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