AS WE enter another new year, last night’s fizz sits stale in champagne flutes throughout the land, millions nurse hangovers whilst many more suffer from the latest round of Covid-related illnesses. 

Meanwhile schools wait to see if there will be any announcements about changes to measures in place in response to the rapid rise in cases of Covid. It is difficult not to look back at the chaotic start to last year with schools open for a day before closing their doors to return to remote learning. 

But, a year on, we are not in the same position. A large percentage of the adult population is now double vaccinated, a testament to what remains of our National Health Service, with 11 to 18 year olds also now having the opportunity to get vaccinated. There is also a definite Covid fatigue setting in amongst some education staff with an often restated desire to “just get back to normal.”

The resumption of a normal education is what we all want of course but that should not equate to simply sticking our heads in the sand. If we want to get back to normal then that has to come with mitigations to keep pupils and staff safe. 

With record numbers of Covid cases being reported the Department for Education, In typical DfE form, has issued vague instructions to schools telling them that they temporarily recommend face coverings to be worn in classrooms.

Only a very small number of air cleaning devices have been supplied to schools and colleges which means that although some schools have been issued with CO2 monitors to check air quality little has  been done to ensure that schools are able to act upon the readings. 

In the absence of technology what is recommended? Opening a window and pointing a fan at the door have been suggested but what if the readings are still high? Or there are no windows? 

Our severely underfunded schools simply don’t have the space to relocate classes so what happens? Nothing. Classes of 30-plus crowd into stuffy classrooms and omicron spreads from pupil to parent to the community at large.

What schools really need is government funded air cleaning and ventilation for every school and college that requires them. This might seem like an expensive project and many may question where the money would come from.

A few suggestions spring to mind, a windfall tax on Covid profiteers would be a start. It was also reported this week that for half the cost of a new royal yacht we could equip every classroom with air filtration. If the government is serious about keeping kids in class then let’s see them put their money where their mouths are, tax the rich and let our feudal overlord buy her own toys. 

Another option would be following the lead of Scotland and ending private schools’ annual £1.7 billion tax break and using a fraction of this money to level up our state schools. JK Galbraith apparently observed that society has “private opulence and public squalor” — maybe what we need is some redistribution. 

The result of the government’s inaction is that there is a real risk of schools having to close due to staff shortages, likely to be made worse by the shortage of lateral flow tests. The government’s response? To put out a call for ex-teachers to return to the classroom to fill the gaps. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi urged them to “join the national mission to protect education.”

This ill thought out plan has predictably had a poor take up with the number of teachers volunteering in the hundreds. Bearing in mind that there are almost 25,000 schools in England alone…

Why has the uptake been so poor? 

Firstly, who is the government hoping to attract back? Retired teachers or those who have quit teaching? Education workers are constantly vilified by the media and undervalued by the government but now they expect retired teachers, who are in the most vulnerable categories often, to return to schools, the engines of transmission, with no added safety measures? For what? A few extra quid? 

Maybe it’s ex-teachers they hope to woo? Those teachers who have left due to stress, long hours, unnecessary and punitive accountability measures, heavy workloads and pay that lags behind inflation? 

More than half of teachers in Wales have taken time off due to anxiety, depression or stress in the last year according to a survey of NEU members. Maybe if the government valued education and valued educators we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place? 

Perhaps one solution would be to suspend Ofsted inspections and use the inspectors as supply teachers? It would do them some good to be back at the chalk face. On second thoughts could we in good conscience inflict them upon schools and pupils? I think that idea requires improvement. 

There is little doubt now that there is another wave coming. Apparently hospitals have been told to find space in their car parks to set up temporary field hospitals and morgues have been asked to review capacity. Surely now the government must look at how to keep pupils in school safely. 

We cannot, though, wait for the government to do the right thing or for Her Majesty’s Opposition to wake up and start acting like a real opposition and calling for safety measures. If we want things to change then we need to organise in our workplaces and our communities. 

Of course none of these mitigations are cures. While vaccine apartheid still exists so too will Covid. 

Less than 27 per cent of people in Bangladesh are fully vaccinated, a tragically low number but high when compared to only 0.03 per cent of people in Burundi and 0.62 per cent of people in Haiti, the list goes on. 

The poorest nations lag far behind those in the West while the pharmaceutical industry rakes in billions of profit. The result of this is the continued rise of new variants of Covid. 

As socialists we know that, like Covid, the working class has no nation and as trade unionists solidarity is at the heart of everything that we do.

As well as demanding the redistribution of resources within this country — to ensure that our children, education workers and the wider community are protected — we must also stand in solidarity with workers across the globe and demand a fair and equal distribution of vaccines. The old cry of “workers of the world unite” is as needed now as it was in 1848. 

Robert Poole is a teacher and NEU activist.