When the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson laid out the roadmap to kickstarting the British economy, the reopening of schools appeared to be the focal point. The Prime Minister announced that some schools could start to return from June 1st.
Whilst for some parents this might have been music to their ears, there are a couple of logistical problems which the government and schools themselves are going to need to address before sending the kids back.
Although he announced that it would only be students in year one and year six heading back first, it is likely that there will still be some social distancing measures in place in September. Therefore, these issues will become even more evident when all the year groups are allowed back in.
Hygiene
Good hygiene plays a critical part in preventing the spread of diseases, and COVID-19 is no different. However, when it comes to schools, maintaining good hygiene becomes more difficult.
Billions of people all over the world have been instructed to wash their hands for a minimum of 20 seconds in order to kill any germs on their hands. It is worth remembering that the ratio of sinks to students is, on average, one to 30 in UK schools. This would work out as one sink between two classes under the government's new plan for class size.
Consequently, it will inevitably take some time for this to happen, and it will end creating delays in the school timetable, especially if this is done at the end of each period. However, there are faults even in this method, as it would see masses of students from different classes congregate at the toilets at the same time at the end of their lessons. There is already a limited amount of space in these bathrooms so this would create a social distancing nightmare.
Staff Numbers
The British government have stated that they will limit class sizes to 15 students when schools reopen. With the average secondary class size being around 22, the average primary school class 27, it is likely that each class will be split into two.
If each class is split in half then that will require twice the teaching staff available and this is where problems begin to arise. It creates a scenario where there are potentially more classes than available staff.
Teachers who are over 70 and those with underlying health conditions are likely to still be self-isolating. They may not want to risk exposure to the virus but going back to work and mixing with multiple students and staff at school. This is likely to reduce the number of staff available even further and will create more logistical problems for some schools.
Number of Classrooms
As previously mentioned, it is likely that the classes will be divided in half, however, if they are divided into two groups then there will need double the rooms available. Primary schools especially are only so big, they simply may not have enough classrooms available to accommodate this.
Potentially, a scenario could arise where two classes will have an art lesson on at the same time, but there may be only one room available as they were one of the classes that got cut in half. This will become more problematic when it comes it to science lessons, as schools only have a certain number of labs on hand for students.
Nonetheless, the schools are going to be required to make some more serious and carefully considered timetable adjustments in order to solve this.
The re-opening of schools is clearly a major part of Boris Johnsons plan to kickstart the British economy. However, the social distancing measures that are in place have created more logistical problems, which the schools themselves will have to deal with.
One way or another, schools are going to look completely different from the way that we left them when Boris announced their closure in March. The rebuilding from this is going to require a lot of patience and maybe some experimentation.
