Schooners before school Has the government got its priorities wrong

First pubs, then schools; beers before the bell. For many parents, lifting restrictions in that order shows the NSW government has its priorities wrong. But, as ever in this pandemic, the reality is more complicated.

When pubs, gyms and beauty salons emerge from hibernation at 70 per cent community vaccination on October 11, immunised adults can choose whether or not to sink a schooner or get their legs waxed. For some, the risk of exposure to COVID-19 will be worth it. Others will opt to stay safe at home, sober and shaggy.

Children don’t have that choice; school is mandatory. When face-to-face lessons resume on October 18, following a decision by crisis cabinet on Wednesday night, they’ll have to return to the classroom. There will no longer be an option to learn from home.

While pubs and parlours will be limited to fully vaccinated adults, with strict curbs on numbers, those measures aren’t possible in classrooms; no primary school student younger than 12 will be vaccinated, and there will be no social distancing. Masks, ventilation and compulsory vaccination of teachers will significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19, but they will not eliminate it.

The prospect of sending children back into this environment in October has deeply divided parents, and passions run high on both sides.

Some have watched their hearty, happy children become gloomy and timid as their worlds shrunk and their social skills evaporated over three months at home. They worry about the impact of prolonged remote learning on their children’s education, and on everyone’s temper. They’re comforted by research showing children are much less likely to become seriously ill. And they believe the benefits of a return to school outweigh the risk.

Other parents are deeply anxious about their children catching the virus, and don’t want them back at school until they are vaccinated. Parental fears about their children’s safety run deep, and can’t always be assuaged by studies showing milder symptoms or lower transmission between children.

For younger students, a vaccine is many months away, but students aged 12 and over can get their shots now. Many parents don’t want their children to be forced back to school until they and their peers have time to be fully immunised, and feel a later return date allows more time to build that extra layer of security.

In a letter to parents late last term, a principal of a Catholic high school reflected the competing demands of parents. Some demanded that schools return as soon as possible; others refused to send their children back at all. “Some families will not be sending their children while others are unvaccinated, and other families will not be having their daughters vaccinated,” St Scholastica’s principal Kate Rayment wrote.

Many principals say there are similar divides at their own schools. The most difficult thing about the return, says one, is not timetables or class plans; it’s managing the views and anxieties of parents. “There is an immense divide between those who are champing at the bit, and those who are nervous or worse.”

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