The government’s handling of education during the coronavirus crisis has lacked a coherent strategy. Geoff Barton puts forward a number of simple, logical solutions for the challenges facing schools in the coming months

The government wants a full return to schools and colleges in September. That much is clear. Everything else is uncertain.

How we do that while suppressing transmission of the coronavirus is what Donald Rumsfeld might have called a “known unknown”. So too is the shape of next year’s exams and assessment, and the detail of the grand £1 billion catch-up plan announced last week.

Over the weekend, in a radio interview, we were asked for our view of the government’s handling of education during this crisis. Our response: it has lacked a coherent strategy.

We were reminded of the scale of the challenge facing the government, and rightly so. No government is going to get everything right in such a situation, and it won’t all go smoothly.

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