Some kids are having zoom lessons (parking to one side whether this is the gold standard) and they have the tech to access this
Some kids are having weekly phone contact
Some kids are having differentiated work set remotely
Some kids are having paper work packs hand delivered
Some kids are having a few links sent out at the start of the week
Some kids are getting feedback
Some kids are getting no feedback
Some kids are back in school
Some kids aren’t back in school
Some kids aren’t allowed back in school even though they are in a year group that should be back in school
Some year groups are prioritised
Some year groups have been effectively abandoned
Some kids are vulnerable and not getting the support they need
Some kids have SEN and are not getting the support they need.
It’s terrible that education provision is so patchy. That some pupils are getting far more input and support than others. Parents are right to be furious if theirs is one of the have-nots. They have the right to look at what other kids are getting and be worried that their kid is missing out.
But
This is not unique to lockdown. Do not think, for one second, that things will be fair when kids return to school. Do not think, for one second, that things were fair before lockdown. Underfunding, lack of resources, lack of qualified staff affecting quality of education (despite schools’ and teachers’ best efforts) have been an issue for years.
Some kids had qualified teachers. Some kids had a string of unqualified supply teachers. Some kids were in well-resourced brand new school buildings. Some were in dilapidated pre-fab huts. Some had excellent pastoral support. Some had none. Some had access to opportunities. Some had very little in the way of extras.
And on top of it all, the DfE are a useless bunch who have lied that everything is fine while the system slowly crashes to the ground, desperately propped up by the hard work of the increasingly fewer numbers of dedicated staff who haven’t yet burned out.
This inequality is clearly unacceptable, however it may not have been clear to parents up till now just how bad things are. They may have laboured under the illusion that their children were not affected.
How has it come to this? Gove’s academisation program, making schools into independent private concerns, pitting them against each other instead of encouraging collaboration. League tables. Ofsted ratings. The illusion of parental choice. The mass exodus of teaching staff. Every school has been expected to do its own thing, and now they are doing their own thing, we cannot do what other countries have done and centralise education efforts. Because of lack of funding and central control, the government cannot mandate that schools do anything in a uniform fashion. How can they say children should have video lessons when the tech isn’t there? How can they say that children should make use of centralised lessons from Oak Academy when every school is following their own curriculum?
If you are frustrated regarding the DfE’s announcements of primary kids going back, not going back, Y10 and 12 going back but actually not going back to lessons although some are - they are ALWAYS this incompetent. You’re only now seeing it, but apply that to the last ten years and you might get some idea of the scale of frustration of people who work in education.
If you are pissed off now, you should be. Maintain that anger when schools are back. They need your support because they are struggling in a broken system. Direct it to the right place.