Schools are a vital service for all children and young adults who are still in education.  I think it is fair to say that the virus has done its fair share in corrupting students school day for the worse.  However, in some cases it has affected school for young children in a good way.   At this very moment, restrictions in the UK are coming off slowly and steadily.  We are close to becoming back to ‘normal’, however some people still think it is best to close schools for now to quicken this process of containment.  There are points, for and against this question but in this article, you are going to be seeing why schools should be open and the various reasons as to why this point is more favoured.  

 

For starters, schools should remain open since, it would be very unfortunate for kids to be stuck inside yet again.  If there is another lockdown and schools are closed down, children would suffer from a lack of interaction with teachers and peers, it would be difficult to engage in the lessons.  They may find the online lessons particularly boring, so there would be no engagement into the lesson, which would affect their learning.  Especially for Nursery children and younger year group, they would miss the opportunity of playing with their friends and developing their social skills.  They may find the online lessons particularly boring, so there would be no engagement into the lesson, which would affect their learning.  As Abigail Chambers (school English teacher) stated “school is for more than just academics - it teaches social skills, structure and provides a safe environment to grow and learn”, but the younger generation would lack some of these skills if their schools closed.  

 

Furthermore, closing down the schools would mean that most schools would have remote learning, however not all students have access to electronic devices where they can attend lessons and some may not even have internet around.  This would cause hassle for the parents as they would have to find a way to connect the students to their online ‘classrooms’.  Some students may not even have the facility to use a device, so they wouldn’t be able to attend any of the lessons being taught.  It is crucial for exam year groups to be taking their lessons seriously, since their exams are quite close but if they don’t have the chance then that would impact the students learning and therefore their results.  In other cases, teachers could be the ones with no way to connect and they be the ones who don’t know how to use a particular software, which would be a hassle especially if they teach an important subject.    

 

In addition, although, students get a lot of free time at home than at school, remote learning means they would barely have the chance to be active during school hours, compared to physically being at the school.  This can lead to obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle and therefore diseases can slowly build up.  Being unable to connect with people physically could lead to depression and can seriously affect their mental health for the worse, they would begin to feel lonely and isolated due to the physical isolation from school, which is another reason why schools should remain open.  If the students have no one at school to talk to, at least they would have a form tutor or a favourite teacher or a student guide to help them with their needs.  

 

Another reason why schools should stay open, is because school is a lot more structured and organised.  There will be set timetables and timings to help everything go in order, this increases productivity and mental well-being, since the students would think that they are getting a lot done and therefore boost their confidence.  However, remote lessons would mean students would be able to wake up from bed 5 minutes before registration and attend lesson while in bed, some might still be asleep.  They could be eating in the background, on different devices or even talking to someone on the phone or at home.  Anything could be happening behind the screen, whereas in a classroom, the setting would be correct.  The children would most likely be sitting on the designated seats and engage in the lesson being taught, if there is anything wrong is going on, the teacher would be aware and fix the mistake right there and then.  Productivity would be increased and a lot more learning would take place.  Abigail Chambers quoted “most young people benefit from the structure and security that being in school brings’, which clearly indicates that even from a teachers point of view, schools are a much better environment for students to learn in.

 

Finally, due to schools closing down and a lack of content being covered in lessons (since the lessons would be much slower) exams may be cancelled and students may not get their desired grade through their hard work but instead, they would get their teacher predicted grades.  Although schools try to predict and give results to students with their full effort to make the grades fair, to students, them doing the actual exam and teachers predicted it would make a lot of difference to them.  Some may believe they would have done better with the actual exams.  

 

In conclusion, schools being open would not only benefit students but teachers also as they would be seeing their students face to face and won’t have to go through the hassle on online teaching.  Parents would also be benefitted as they wouldn’t have some time off from their children and think that their children are getting a better education face to face, rather than online, if schools shut.