School reopening is an important step toward ensuring children’s access to learning and other vital services, such as nutrition, medical access and social development. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. This includes putting in place policies, procedures and financing to support safe operations, learning and recuperation of lost learning, well-being and protection. It also involves ensuring equal access to quality education, especially for the most vulnerable students.
Experiences from countries that have reopened schools show that, with proper mitigation measures, schools pose low risk for disease transmission. Teachers should be able to return to classrooms in a timely fashion so they can begin building relationships with their students and families. This will help them feel more comfortable providing in-person instruction and may help ease concerns about their own health.
Educators should also have the flexibility to work remotely or on site depending on their own personal circumstances. They should be able to access the resources they need, including training on new procedures and policies and on the health and safety impacts of their work, especially in the area of airflow.
Those who are rushing to force schools back into operation without putting the health, safety and well-being of students and educators first are deceiving the public and misguidedly pitting parents against educators. They’re ignoring the fact that people have been exhausted from months of forced closures and are now facing growing, not declining, COVID-19 cases.