- SOPs and schoolchildren?
The decision-point has come upon governments, about whether or not to reopen schools this September. The present school-year has gone down the drain. Closures in March meant that the third term was wasted. Even in places which have succeeded in flattening the curve sufficiently to re-open schools, there have been closures again, as in Hong Kong. Hong Kong best illustrated both the dangers of reopening schools, as well as what the new ‘normal’ would be like.
One of the interesting things about the coronavirus is that the disease it causes, covid-19, does not develop in children of school-going age (or younger) as it does among older. There should be two caveats to this: first, the disease may develop in its most easily recognizable form; second, children have shown a greater vulnerability to the longer-term effects of the virus, which are themselves not all that well-known. The most familiar form is respiratory distress, and death because of that, but there are troubling signs that the coronavirus may find a place in the brains, livers, kidneys or other organs of patients, with effects which will remain unknown until they manifest themselves. Doctors are not tackling these long-term effects, being too busy fighting the more immediate problems the virus is creating.
Schools will re-open anyhow, without regard for the consequences, just as in an earlier era, when children risked themselves and their families every time they left the house, because there were no treatments for various bacterial diseases now well under control because of antibiotics. That is the new reality that our leaders mean, but are too afraid to say out loud. After all, we should be willing to live with the possibility of dying suddenly
However, the majority of children do not suffer any of these symptoms. That does not mean they do not get infected. It merely means that they do not develop any symptoms. While they are infected, if they are not isolated, they spread the disease wherever they go. It must not be forgotten that these are perfectly healthy children, who will not be isolated unless they test positive, and who will probably only be tested if identified as a fit subject by contact tracing. If tests are ramped down, children without symptoms would be very low on the priority for testing.
However, they will be very efficient spreaders of the disease. Keeping the schools closed does not mean they will be in isolation, or locked down. The spirit of adventure remains, and as any teacher will tell anyone willing to hear, keeping children confined to a classroom for some hours a day is hard enough, so keeping them locked down is hard enough.
One of the big differences between Pakistan and countries of the developed world is that there are fewer extended families here. The care of older people devolves upon married children (usually, but not always, sons). That means that there are more multi-generational families in countries like Pakistan. The grandparents are at risk anyway, as apart from their age, they will quite likely have one or more of the co-morbidities that are a risk factor even among those who are not of the vulnerable age.
Keeping those children under check has been problematic as it is. Lockdowns have tended to keep those children from bringing infections into the home. However, when they go to school, there will be nothing to stop them catching the virus, and then bringing it home. It is virtually certain they will pass the virus onto their parents and grandparents. While parents would not necessarily get very ill, and might even remain asymptomatic, the grandparents will probably develop the disease and might not recover from it. Then there is the additional risk that teachers will face. It should also not be forgotten that the most experienced (and thus the best) teachers are also the oldest, and thus highly vulnerable, possibly suffering from one of the co-morbidities that increase the risk of dying.
Another problem is that the schools will be opening during the winter. This might well be the peak of a second wave. True, the virus has not been killed off by the summer heat, but during winter it will be reinforced by all of those flu viruses. This is the time children’s noses run copiously because of them. Children are much more susceptible to them, and are likely to bring them home, where parents and grandparents will be infected, and quite likely to fall ill as well, with grandparents at particular risk. Some of these will be the coronavirus.
Wherever school reopenings have been even suggested, let alone decided on, as in Pakistan, there have been loud claims that SOPs will be put in place. Much effort has been made to draft them. As far as schools are concerned, it is crying for the moon to expect them to be implemented. A look at a class of schoolchildren on their break would speedily convince any doubter that children think that SOPs are for other people. And while it might be possible to argue that university students will show social responsibility (such as by washing hands before greeting a grandparent), it is not to be expected of primary schoolchildren.
In Pakistan, there is also the question of who is to foot the bill. Private school-owners would be reluctant, and it should not be forgotten that many schools are already stuffed into (mostly rented) remises, and social distancing will be an issue. Private schools chase after pupil numbers to break even, and thus are not likely to accept numbers restrictions.
At the same time, the schools are crying to be re-opened. Every society, whether the USA at the cutting edge or Pakistan trying to lift itself by its bootstraps out of poverty, needs to pass on its knowledge accumulation to the next generation. Closed schools not only frazzle parents’ nerves, but leave children under-socialised and under-informed. The governments carrying out the re-openings will also have to open those industries which are necessary, like transport, stationery, textbook publication, among others. There is also the question of public examinations, and admissions into professional institutions. Another reason why Pakistan needs to re-open, as opposed to just wanting to, is the fear that not all the children who have been forced out of school, will go back. Private schools are finding it impossible to meet salary and utility bills, and building rents, and the teachers and building owners have their income streams disrupted in what is already a topsy-turvy time.
One result of this is that the world might get a forced lesson in the ‘new normal.’ Schools will re-open anyhow, without regard for the consequences, just as in an earlier era, when children risked themselves and their families every time they left the house, because there were no treatments for various bacterial diseases now well under control because of antibiotics. That is the new reality that our leaders mean, but are too afraid to say out loud. After all, we should be willing to live with the possibility of dying suddenly.
