Chronicles of the pandemic - Great Britain

The last bell is rung for everyone, or almost everyone, and nobody thinks that we can certainly go back to school until summer. Schools closed from now also in the whole of the United Kingdom, except for the children of those employed in services deemed "essential" by the British government in the battle against coronavirus: a list of professions extensive enough to worry, however, the trade unions and risking to jeopardize - in fear of someone - the effectiveness of a measure which should also align the island with what has now been done across the continent. In the Downing Street plans, a small number of schools will have to continue operating in the next two weeks, at least until the start of the Easter holidays. So as to welcome those students, under the age of ten, whose parents - falling into the category of workers on the front line against the COVID-19 pandemic (from doctors to nurses, from policemen to journalists to the teachers themselves) - cannot afford to to stay at home. A choice of partial compromise, says someone, in contrast to the rest of Europe where schools were closed earlier. And as a rule without exception. From the first day, Premier Boris Johnson had expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the generalized stop to schools and universities. So it is not surprising that, according to the provision of the Ministry of Education, it is enough that parents fall into one of the eight categories of "essential occupations", or are considered "vulnerable", for children to continue going to school. A right, not an obligation, but somewhat extended.
Paul Whiteman, secretary general of the union of principals, tries to underline that school attendance is to be understood in these days as "an extreme remedy, restricted to a minority of workers who have no alternative". "The list of professions, however, is so extensive that in some schools next Monday - the chief education worker of the teachers of the National Education Union shakes Mary Bousted - the majority of the students could still present themselves".