Opening education at teachers' expense

Boris Johnson has announced the reopening of educational facilities across England and Wales, but the mental toll on the teachers is a greater growing concern.

There are currently around 506,400 full time teachers in the UK, with approximately 80% of those in England alone, excluding other classroom and school staff. Many of these have been working from home, coming into classrooms fewer times in a week to teach students who's parents are either essential workers or their home situation classifies them as vulnerable. Teaching and studying alike is stressful enough, without the pandemic causing fears and anxieties. According to a YouGov survey, 55% of Education Workers have felt their levels of anxiety have significantly risen during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 29% feel hopeless.

The Health and Safety representative for the NEU and primary school teacher said "The pandemic has definitely impacted on staff morale, mainly due to the fact that teachers don't feel supported by the government.

"The national average of children in schools has been 26%. Social media (and then the Education secretary suggesting parent scan complain to OFSTED if they feel their children aren't getting a good enough remote learning package) has been full of people/trolls slating teachers because the unions have pushed for schools to be safe before children return."

The root of the problem seems to lie with the failure of communication and clarity between the government and education unions, with many parents fearing that their children's return to school wont be safe.

"As far as I am aware the government provided one box of PPE (which was last year), the rest has been provided by the school itself. Believe me teachers want children back in the classroom where they belong, but we want schools to be safe. I don't think all children returning to school on 8th March is safe."