One Ring to Rule them All is Often Suboptimal
Watching those having the unenviable task of deciding whether or not school students should return to school as we try to learn how to manage covid in a “non elimination” world, a striking constraint is the fact that in an education system where there is but one approach which has to be applied (more or less) uniformly to all education, through one system utterly dominated by one “Ministry” and one set of institutional settings options is needlessly limiting.
As time marches on and the pandemic unfolds what is clear is that there is remarkable diversity in the nature and form of exposure and risk scattered through myriad communities in quite different geographies, demographic character, exposure profiles, vaccination states and vulnerability status. Successful management is most likely to reflect nuance, adaptability, wide variation and scope for a dynamic approach.
A set of institutional settings that is founded at its very heart on a “make one size fit all” dictate is likely to be overly dictatorial, inflexible, capable of generating conflict and inadequate – almost by definition. A centralised template is most likely more of a hindrance than a help. Greater reliance on the capacity of communities to develop their own solutions has a good deal to offer that is swept away in pursuing central dictate as a way forward.
Eye2theLongRun 