The protective value of the national vaccination programme and the effectiveness of measures designed to limit the spread of Covid-19 will both be tested in coming weeks when schools and third-level institutions reopen after the summer break.
For schools the new regime is one that is already familiar to pupils and teachers. Standard infection control measures, including social distancing, regular cleaning of classrooms and hand sanitising will remain in place. Secondary-school children will be required to wear face masks while primary schools will retain the pod system so as to reduce mixing. The Government has belatedly shown signs of recognising the importance of ventilation in preventing the spread of this airborne disease and is distributing carbon dioxide monitors to all schools to monitor the quality of the air in classrooms.
For some, including those with compromised immune systems, it will be a particularly stressful time. The same goes for teachers in the early stages of pregnancy, who have been told they should not take the vaccine (until the 14th week) but have also been informed that it will not be possible for them to work remotely. Given the small numbers involved, it should be possible for Government to find a reasonable accommodation.
Greater uncertainty surrounds the reopening of third-level colleges, where teaching has for the most part taken place virtually for the past year. The Department of Further and Higher Education has set down general principles for the reopening but each institution retains wide discretion to make its own arrangements. Some are being more cautious than others, keeping large lectures online and maintaining strict limits on in-person classes.
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Others are planning to resume large lectures with a mask requirement and shorter sessions but without social distancing. Of the two approaches, the more cautious seems the most sensible, at least for now. As a general rule, colleges should seek to follow the general thrust of guidelines that apply in society at large; nowhere else at present can up to 500 people gather in a single room without distancing.
At the same time, there is no reason why other parts of the student experience – college bars and canteens, society activities, libraries and sports clubs – cannot resume subject to the same measures that obtain beyond the campus walls, including a proof-of-vaccination requirement in some indoor settings.
The Government has invested such political capital in the goal of keeping schools and colleges open that it would pay a heavy price for any failure this autumn. But the greatest cost would fall on young people themselves, who have suffered terribly during the pandemic. The State owes it to them to ensure they can get back to class safely.