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The difficult choice of keeping schools open or not during lockdown is a social inequality & child welfare issue affecting life course trajectories in wellbeing
A lot is at stake, so it's often an emotive issue. Lets break it down
(thread)
A lot is at stake, so it's often an emotive issue. Lets break it down
(thread)
Children from poorer families are more likely to lose out educationally if schools shut
Insight from a Dutch study (MT @mendel_random)
"In the most low-resourced households, the size of the learning slide is up to 55% larger than in the gen population" https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ve4z7/
Insight from a Dutch study (MT @mendel_random)
"In the most low-resourced households, the size of the learning slide is up to 55% larger than in the gen population" https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ve4z7/
Even in the case where schools stay open in a rotation system of partial distance/ classroom ("blended learning"), the people most likely to miss out are those who are most disadvantaged & don't have the resources needed to deal with such measures
As well as learning, kids & teenagers need social interactions with peers & other adults at school for positive mental health as well as the positive nature of routines & other services linked to schools https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30109-7/fulltext?mod=article_inline
Gender inequalities: Another social inequality which may occur due to school closures is that a greater burden of child care & homeschooling falls upon women, adversely affecting their wellbeing, contributing to their economic & career disadvantage https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561
On the other hand, the very nature of schools where large numbers of people are brought together indoors talking, laughing, shouting, singing, eating etc is an ideal environment for #SARSCoV2 aerosol & droplet transmission
Its difficult to separate-out the potential impact of school closures on #COVID19 outcomes because usually they've been implemented alongside other measures & we're relying on biased ecological data, unable to stratify data etc
There is some evidence that school closures have had an impact on bringing down the reproduction number https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1473309920307854?casa_token=UAnaeFVuj9gAAAAA:-SKt0a0PKwfD4MMZatvQvIR_Jtn2tgW4qfkey7tJmOIiO4LXCPEZsY0MZUmFTSK60Lu3CZ1-gw
This example suggests that a delay in implementing emergency measures or school closures was associated with increased mortality
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa923/5868545
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa923/5868545
Overall, there is no right answer here
An important long term investment? An effective school-specific test, trace & supported isolation system. Widespread testing in schools could be developed over the long term allowing to isolate staff & kids, & supporting families
An important long term investment? An effective school-specific test, trace & supported isolation system. Widespread testing in schools could be developed over the long term allowing to isolate staff & kids, & supporting families
Ps.
-I have not gone into transmission rates between children of various ages & their families, other much more qualified folks have done so
-I have not gone into issues of special needs, nor children for whom the classic school model is not optimal etc
-I have not gone into transmission rates between children of various ages & their families, other much more qualified folks have done so
-I have not gone into issues of special needs, nor children for whom the classic school model is not optimal etc
