A 15-year-old reader, Harry Aldridge, on the failure to keep students safe. Plus letters from Andrew Bailes and Ian Roberts
After returning to school earlier this week as a 15-year-old pupil, the notion that the government is seeing schools as a petri dish where herd immunity can be studied, sampled and scrutinised is becoming increasingly evident (Editorial, 4 January). The government has a long litany of failures when it comes to protecting our schools and colleges: a scandalous shortage of testing equipment, inadequate provision of ventilation and now a vaccine rollout lagging behind in the 12-15 age group. This is a time for real leadership, yet this government seems to be unable to implement the basic public health measures to keep our schools, colleges and pupils safe.
Harry Aldridge
Plymouth, Devon
• I’ve had to self-isolate after contracting Omicron, and was therefore signed off sick by my college (Heads warn of weeks of Omicron disruption in English schools, 3 January). As one of the many teachers in this situation, and with a specialism in English, I’d like to raise a concern about the education secretary’s use of language. The problem of staff being off sick or in self-isolation has been described by Nadhim Zahawi (and consequently elsewhere) as one of “absenteeism”.
