Boris Johnson sought a plan to vaccinate thirteen people million by mid February in the top four priority groups. One of the groups included front line health workers. After the first lockdown, Boris Johnson made it very clear to the general public that one of his main priorities was to keep schools open yet, again, we are in another lockdown with remote learning.
By schools being shut, the immediate effect is that children’s education suffers. Many children across the country do not have access to computers. Some may have computers however the internet connection is slow and they are unable to stay on video calls. Pupils would also not be benefiting from face to face tuition and engagement with their teachers.
Another reason why Boris Johnson wanted to keep schools open is the knock on effect of closing schools for long periods of time. Many parents are forced to take time off work to care for their children and some may have to home school their children as well which will have an affect on their income which affects on the economy. During 2020, the economy deeply suffered due to COVID-19 and with schools being shut again the economy will suffer further. The long term effect is that there will be a generation of children whose education has suffered and consequently employment prospects could suffer.
If teachers were key workers they could receive the vaccine sooner than they would under the existing priority group scheme, potentially it could allow schools to reopen sooner giving children a better education and helping to maintain the economy. An online petition calling for teachers, school and childcare staff to be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccination has 359,000 signatures, at the time of writing, Parliament will debate the petition on the 11th January 2021.
