Our nation is emerging tentatively and tortuously from its collective nightmare, with pubs, offices and places of worship opening their doors. The risks are high, and the requirement for self-discipline is constant.
In the next few weeks, our schools will again take centre stage, as they reopen in full, enabling all our children to resume their education.
After the heartbreaking loss of life and pain caused to individuals and communities, the risks of reopening feel uncomfortably high. There is a constant need for caution.
However, if we fail to meet this challenge - if we fail to show the courage, conviction and creativity asked of us at this critical juncture - the consequences will be grave.
A national need
Our country needs schools open. This is not simply to enable parents to return to work, save millions of jobs or prevent thousands of businesses from folding. Nor do we need pupils to return just to avoid bankrupting our nation and heralding another decade of austerity, which would devastate the most vulnerable in our society.
No. We must open our schools for our children’s sakes. For the millions of families across our country who cannot afford laptops, high-speed internet and private tutors to help their children succeed, the consequences of prolonged closure are particularly catastrophic.
We owe it to our children to prioritise their progress, welfare and life chances, even if that means making further sacrifices ourselves.
Of course, there are risks to opening. We will need to reorganise our classrooms, work in different ways and ask our children to respect new rules. We must also support our staff and pupils who are medically vulnerable, give confidence to our parents and be even more zealous about keeping our schools clean. Leaders are actively planning for the new normal that autumn will bring.
No viable alternative
There is also more that the government and wider society can do to help all our schools to open safely.
Our teachers should be prioritised for routine and regular testing, particularly in areas of the country where community transmission has increased. Parents need to ensure that young people maintain the same discipline and caution outside school that is expected of them within our classrooms.
Our unions and ministers need to reach a consensus on face coverings in schools, so that it ceases to be a political issue. We also need a focused, positive communication campaign by government and local authorities, to give parents confidence that young people should now return to their classrooms.
In recent days, some have asked for a Plan B, in which schools do not open. There is no Plan B. There is no viable alternative in which impoverished children are given the life-changing education they deserve. Without schools opening, we cannot heal their emotional wounds or restore structure to their lives.
If we need to shut our pubs to open our schools, so be it. If we must again curtail the mixing of households and restrict other freedoms, we should pay such a price. And, if we must all wear face masks in our classrooms to keep others safe, then we should accept this measure.
Because, whatever needs to be done, we must open our schools.
Hamid Patel CBE is chief executive of Star Academies
