❦ “Since the pandemic began, I have constantly made the argument that a healthy workforce is a necessity for a healthy economy.

This, to me, is the definition of obvious.

The same argument applies to education.

I’m writing this because I’ve received a large number of messages and e-mails this week from parents who are being placed under extreme pressure by schools in an attempt to stop their children trying to avoid infection.

Let me be very, very clear: education is extraordinarily important.

Health is extraordinarily important.

A child’s education will suffer if that child is unwell.

Again, the definition of obvious.

Parents should not be put in a position in which they are being forced to choose between their child’s health and their child’s education.

It is a false dichotomy that mirrors the pernicious culture of presenteeism that is sadly still present in many workplaces.

It’s also driven by the nature of box-ticking bureaucracies that always seek to maintain the status quo.

This is both an ethical and pragmatic argument.

Ethical, because placing pressure on parents to have to choose between access to education and near-certain infection of their children is morally wrong.

And, believe me, I make moral statements carefully.

Pragmatic, because if schools simply introduced air-filtration as standard, and encouraged parents to keep children with acute Covid off school, there would be far, far less transmission in schools – thus improving the quality of education for all.

Again, the definition of obvious.

Much like the economy, we need to employ medium- and long-term thinking now, rather than short-term thinking that clings to the status quo purely for its own sake.

And remember, reduction of transmission in schools reduces transmission in the wider community.

As such, this means that less adults are sick at any given time, which is also good for the economy.

This is so clear that it baffles me that most policy-makers seem to fail to understand it.”

© 2023 Conor Browne. ➲