Millions of families across the UK gathered around their televisions on the 22nd of February to hear the Prime Minister deliver a speech, for what felt like the millionth time. However, students were met with the promising news that the majority of them will be back in school on March 8th. With many pupils having been subjected to on and off online learning since March 2020, this announcement was met with a myriad of reactions. Some students and teachers were overjoyed after hearing the news, and have been filled with glee ever since. While others are still fairly apprehensive towards the opening of schools.
Secondary school student, Arushi Singhai, says ‘whilst the precautions being taken for the return to school are better than when we went back in September, it still isn’t safe to go back. At the very least we should phase the return, with exam years going back first.’ Although she ‘doesn’t mind online learning’ as everyone is ‘more comfortable with the technology now’ Singhai expressed that she is still, ‘very excited to see people again.’ The dangers of continuing online learning are still very clear to Singhai. She believes that online learning has meant that she has ‘slacked off on work’ as lessons taught at home, can often be ‘monotonous’ due to the lack of ‘discussions and debates.’
Anai Ganatra, also a secondary school student, feels that because ‘school is such a difficult place to constantly regulate and monitor the conditions of, catching the virus seems to be inevitable.’ She does however, hope that ‘testing will keep the numbers in control and adds an extra precaution and source of comfort.’ In terms of the impact to her education, Ganatra said that online learning was ‘less engaging and therefore harder to focus on.’ She also added that ‘although it was nice to have freedom about how and when tasks were completed... it’s important to be in a learning environment with other students. Adapting to online learning potentially comes with the threat of losing social skills.’
Ultimately the review of online school was negative. ‘It has been challenging to maintain structure and work ethic during times where we have not known what we were working towards!’ Ganatra expressed, ‘especially as an exam year student.’
Luckily years 11 and 13, have been provided with some more clarity recently; with any luck, they will have a nice ending to their GCSE and A-Level experiences respectively. Hopefully the return to school on March 8th will be permanent and I, as well as many, am looking forward to the return to a life that resembles normality.
