When Covid came along I was concerned about the closing down of schools and of the part played by teaching unions in abandoning children by their encouragement of school closures. Sadly it seems that my concerns were valid.

Ed Dorrell writing in CapX magazine has been speaking to various focus groups of parents about education after Covid and it makes for very worrying reading. He has said that the social contract between schools and parents has been broken and now parents, even those who want their children to get a good education, now see few reasons why they should bother to get their kids in school all the time. There’s now more social permissiveness for absence from school and more parents are saying ‘sod it’ and booking holiday’s outside of school holiday time in order to capitalise on the price differential.

Mr Dorrell said:

In short, the social contract between parents and schools was broken by Covid. A report that I co-authored and that was published yesterday found that parents across the country – and across all classes – no longer believe it is their responsibility to get their kids to school full time.

The idea of mandatory full-time schooling appears to be dying.

Parents in the focus groups that I ran were extraordinarily honest about how the pandemic – and six months of not sending their children to school – had changed their attitudes, possibly for good.

The messaging – which is factually correct, by the way – that every single day in school matters simply doesn’t wash any more. If schools were shuttered for six months during Covid, then why would a day or two off to go to Alton Towers matter, went the argument I heard time and again.

Whilst I concur with Mr Dorrell about the importance of school attendance I cannot blame or criticise parents who decide that there’s nothing wrong with a day or two out of school especially if it is doing something vaguely educational or uplifting. Like Mr Dorrell I would prefer to see all kids in school and learning but this is not happening.

But it’s not the fault of the parents that we are in this situation. It’s primarily the fault of the UK government and its overreaction to Covid. However a large amount of blame needs to be laid at the feet of the teachers trade unions. These unions did not press hard enough for schools to remain open and in some cases pushed for school closures even though it was quite clear that this policy would harm school pupils and especially harm those schoolchildren with special educational needs. In effect the teachers unions looked at our children and said ‘sod you all’ when Covid came along and we should never ever forget that these unions did this.

The teachers unions might be expressing concern about school absences but they need to recognise the part that they played in creating this generational educational disaster. The teaching unions need to take responsibility for what they’ve done and own the disaster that they’ve had a part in creating.