Thread by @soniasodha

Couple of qus on the unfolding uni saga...

1) If you couldn’t ensure regular mass testing available on campus why get unis back this term, as unpalatable as not doing so would have been? Getting 100s of students to self isolate or trying to limit their movement is worse?

2) Wouldn’t it have been better to focus on distance learning for the first term/semester and give students a fee rebate for the whole of first year?

(It would require provision for young people and mature students who couldn’t live at home eg care leavers.)

This would have been really awful for a generation of young people already failed by A level saga, but is it better than having to self isolate in box rooms in halls for weeks? Feels like govt should have at least asked these qus.

But this would require a coordinated national policy response and funding for fee rebate, and there has been none from the government on universities. DFE & Gavin Williamson have been absolutely dreadful in this pandemic.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the total and utter lack of thinking about how to mitigate the impact of this pandemic on children and young people is just so utterly depressing.

This was so predictable and is so miserable for the students affected.

theguardian.com/education/2020…