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Is Social Distancing Impossible in Schools? UK-based Teacher Discusses.
As per a UK-based headteacher, Katharine Birbalsingh, it is impossible to expect this in schools.
In the midst of lockdown around the world, which is needed to contain the spread of Coronavirus, there is an underlying question that everyone is grappling with. When it’s lifted, how do we just get back to normalcy and still follow social distancing? As per a UK-based headteacher, Katharine Birbalsingh, it is impossible to expect this in schools.
“Schools will open at some point. But what I don’t want is for people to perpetuate the lie, and it is a lie, that social distancing [in schools] is possible, it just isn’t,” Katharine expressed in a BBC Radio programme.
As a head and founder of the Michaela Free School in North West London, one of the strictest schools in the UK, she quashed the idea of expecting schools to be safely re-opened. “Social distancing in schools is simply impossible. We are considered to be the strictest school in Britain and even we would find it impossible," she warned.
She stressed that it is unreal to expect the 2-metre distance between pupils in schools. “We have got corridors that are just over a metre in width so the children when passing each other obviously touch each other. When they’re in the classrooms coming in and out, first of all, classrooms are small, in all schools, so the children are all sat right next to each other, they have to hand out books and pens and paper when they get up from their desks to walk out of the classroom they touch each other,” said Katherine as she criticised the pretence of expecting social distancing in schools.
Katherine also shed light on taking into consideration the staff to the young children ratio. It’s difficult to make young children understand and keep them away, and with the unavailability of staff due to underlying health problems, it is only going to create chaos. “From the point of view of a headteacher, if you have to send home all staff with underlying issues, if you have to send home staff with a cough, you are probably going to have fewer than half your staff in your school. You have got to think about the kind of chaos that then ensures when children don’t have their own teacher,” said Katherine.
While there are many teachers whose thoughts resonate with Katherine’s in the UK, countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, and China have re-opened their doors with phased schedules. In the Netherlands, for example, primary pupils will commence school from the 5th of May with secondary pupils returning from 1st June. In Eastern China, students are back in school wearing hats that measure 1-metre to practice social distancing.
India, on the other hand, is prepared with a set of guidelines that will be circulated amongst schools and colleges that should be followed whenever the institutions re-open. "The guidelines will include a checklist and recommended measures to ensure student and staff safety. However, the COVID-19 situation in a particular area will also have to be kept in mind and the institutions will have the flexibility to adapt to the guidelines accordingly. The minister has reiterated many times that the safety and health of students have to be prioritised," stated an HRD senior official.
What are your thoughts on the safe practice of social distancing in schools? Is it possible?