Corona Daily 383: Should Schools Open or Not?

Currently, the raging debate is whether to reopen schools. Yesterday, parents and teachers jointly sued the Florida governor over the order to reopen Florida schools. England has announced every school will open on 1 September. At present, 107 countries have country-wide closure of all schools and colleges. More than a billion students are affected.

Much is written about distance learning, and the unequal access to it. The mental health of children stuck at home for months. Cancellations of exams and fear of missing an academic year. The plight of special or disabled children. Domestic violence. In poor countries, children missing free meals at schools.  

The politicians debating this issue rarely have children in mind.

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Politicians are worried about the economy. About GDP numbers, houses and cars sold, unemployment rate. For the economy to work, factories and offices must function smoothly. Transport must run. For workers to report to work, someone must look after their young children. In developed nations, the family size is small. Sometimes fathers drop the kids to school on the way to work; mothers pick them up on the way back. This arrangement works very well in normal times.

Traditionally, there are more women in nursing jobs than men. As a result, 70% of health care workers are generally women, many of them mothers. With schools shut, doctors and nurses have been unable to report to work. This was the key reason behind Sweden’s risky gambit of keeping the country open. It paid a heavy price.

More than education, it is child care that is the major political/economy issue. Not everyone can work from home. Even those who can are developing children fatigue. They are tasked with looking after children 24 hours, in some cases giving them home education. One American woman was fired because her kids were making too much noise during her business calls.

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There appears to be a consensus that the virus risk for children is low. But their ability to transmit the disease is being investigated.

In a smaller German study, 1500 children (age 14-18) and teachers from 13 schools were tested. Out of 2000, only 12 had antibodies.

South Korea this week published an important large scale study. It covered 65000 people in total. It concluded that children between 10 and 19 can spread the disease just like any adult.

England and America talk of sending the entire class or school into home quarantine if a certain percentage falls sick.  In such cases, what are the parents supposed to do? Take leave from their work? Run the risk of catching the infection from their own child?

Denmark and Norway are the only two countries that have somewhat successfully reopened schools. Israel opened and shut them again.

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Several ideas are floating around. One suggests opening up safe centers for online learning. These can be opened in empty stadiums or wedding halls. Students go there with a laptop to take online lessons, allowing parents to go to work. Meals are provided for. Teachers are not necessary, just some facilitators helping the students with seating and Wifi.

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The suggestion by the US public health seems the most sensible. In your locality (not country), if the positive test rate is 5% or below, open the schools. It means the average infection rate among those tested should not exceed 5%. Florida’s is 20%. If this standard is applied, most big cities in India and the USA should not open schools yet, no matter what anybody thinks.

Ravi