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The negative impact of school closures are “wider and deeper” than missing a few weeks of classes and are not a simple trade-off between education and health the Government’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection has said.
Professor Conor O’Mahony of UCC said the evidence consistently shows that “the impact of school closures was not evenly spread; it fell disproportionately on the most marginalised and disadvantaged children”.
Prof O’Mahony’s annual report be published this month “documents the harm caused to children by school closures and lockdowns. This is multi-faceted, and has been documented in Ireland and internationally.”
Prof O’Mahony said while children have a right to health, a wide range of rights are adversely affected by school closures. He said “we need to take all practicable measures to mitigate the spread of Covid in schools”.
In a series of posts on Twitter, he said: “I see people advocating for schools to remain closed in January. I can’t help thinking that those people’s position is informed by a view that children in their families/communities will be fine. Maybe they will - but a lot of other children won’t be.”
Primary and secondary schools are due to reopen from Thursday, January 6th after the Christmas break. Ministers have said they will reopen but some have been calling for them to stay closed amid the surge of the Omicron variant. A meeting between the Department of Education, unions and management bodies is scheduled for Tuesday to discuss public health measures in schools.
Outlining the impact of closures on children Prof O’Mahony said closures impacted children’s right to education as online learning cannot replace the real thing especially for children with special needs or in marginalised communities with poor access to technology.
The lack of social interaction and recreational opportunities impacted on the right to development and the right to play, he said. While “school closures protected physical health, but caused significant damage to the mental health of many children (particularly adolescents).”
“For some children, the right to protection from violence was seriously compromised. Forced to stay in unsafe homes for extended periods, they were exposed to direct harm from abuse and neglect, and/or indirect harm from witnessing domestic abuse (which increased hugely),” he said
He said schools were a key source of child protection referrals and closures compromised the ability of social servies to identidy and respond to children at risk.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan on Sunday said that schools will reopen as normal on Thursday notwithstanding the huge surge .
“I expect that schools and creches will open next week, colleges to open later (as scheduled),” said Mr Ryan on Sunday.
“It is very important. The loss if we don’t have our children back in school is much larger than any other measure.”
He added: “I think it’s important that schools reopen on Thursday. What our schools have done very well is manage through Covid. (Over) the next few weeks, I don’t think the solution is shutting our schools.”