I’ve been a teacher for almost a quarter of a century – trust me, it’ll be a disaster if schools re-open

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As a teacher with 23 years experience, I am acutely aware of the value schools have in society, not just to facilitate education, but as places of refuge for some children.

It, therefore, confounds me that this government uses vulnerable children as a reason to reopen schools when decades of underfunding in education and social services have resulted in these said children relying in particular on school for support and nurturing.

On the subject of models to look to in terms of reopening schools, using Denmark as an example demonstrates the ignorance the government has built their argument on. Denmark has a population of eight million people, has had consistent and generous funding to its public services, especially schools, with modern and large buildings meaning that social distancing is simpler. Statutory school does not begin until the age of seven, also meaning that children will more likely understand social distancing rules within that environment. My husband is Danish and just as perplexed with this model being cited, as are his fellow Danes!

If the government wants to experiment with the lives of children and staff in state schools, especially in light of a recent surge in cases of Pims or Kawasaki-style illnesses in children, I would like to know if Michael Gove is sending his own children back to school on 1 June, or is he secure in the awareness that as they probably attend private schools, they won’t be put at risk from not returning until September?

Nisha Duus
Address supplied

Is the risk worth it?

I understand the principles behind admitting children back to schools in June: the damage of under-education, the vulnerability of many children and the need for parents to return to work. The strategy itself, however, is flawed beyond belief. The youngest pupils will find it hard to understand the principle of social distancing, let alone to practise it consistently. And it had better be a really constructive curriculum to make it worth opening in June and then shutting down again for the summer holiday. Given the above issues, is it really worth the chance we are taking with the lives of teachers – and parents?

Cole Davis
Norwich

If some parents refuse to give their children the MMR vaccine on the basis of the totally refuted claim that it may increase the risk of autism, how likely are they to agree to send their children to school where even Michael Gove admits there is a risk, albeit one he and his government are happy to take?

G Forward
Stirling

The NHS health surcharge is a betrayal

When Boris Johnson was released from hospital after suffering from Covid-19, he quite rightly praised his nursing staff including a male nurse from Portugal and a female nurse from New Zealand. The very first working surgeon to die of the Coronavirus in the UK was Adil El Tayar, originally from Sudan. He had been volunteering on the front line, aged 63, shortly before his death and he died in our local hospital, West Middlesex.

In Sunday's edition of The Independent, it was reported that the government will not be making any changes to the current rules which require all non-EU nationals to pay a health surcharge of £400 per person per year, rising to £624 from October 2020. From January 2021, this will also be extended to EU nationals when Brexit is completed.

As the surcharge has to be paid in advance, and also by spouses and children, the cost can reach £8,000 for a family of four, in the case of a four to five-year visa.

This is despite a promise made by the home secretary three weeks ago, during the daily press conference, that these charges would be reassessed. People born overseas make up a quarter of staff in NHS hospitals, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. We continue to face a chronic shortage of nurses and doctors, to the extent that many healthcare professionals have kindly agreed to come back out of retirement to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Can I please request that you lobby the prime minister urgently to drop these charges once and for all?

There can be no moral or logical basis for continuing to charge doctors and nurses who work in the NHS additional taxes, just because they happen to have been born overseas.

Chris Key
Address supplied

Boris Johnson and Priti Patel’s proposals to increase the existing surcharge on immigrant NHS workers and to impose a minimum salary level and levy prohibitive visa charges on immigrants more generally post-Brexit always seemed stupid and xenophobic.

In the context of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, which is putting intolerable strain on the NHS and care sector, it is the equivalent of dancing insanely on the graves of the many NHS and care worker staff who have died as a result of their incompetence.

There is something peculiarly nauseating about watching Patel frenetically pulling the ladder up behind her.

D Maughan Brown
York

Tax the super-rich

The publication of the latest Sunday Times Rich List shows that the richest 1,000 residents of the UK – just 0.01 per cent of the population – have a combined wealth of £743bn.

It also reveals that at least 63 on the Rich List – including 20 billionaires – have furloughed their staff under the government scheme which allows employers to claim 80 per cent of their workers' salaries, up to £2,500 a month for each, from the taxpayer.

Any attachment these much-lauded "entrepreneurs" might have to the dogmas of free-market capitalism should disappear when it comes to getting a handout from the state.

The insatiable greed of the super-rich is as disgusting as it is indefensible.

The stupendous accumulations of wealth in the hands of the super-rich mean there should be no more talk from the government of a two-year cap on the pay of public sector workers like nurses once the coronavirus pandemic has passed.

Working-class people bailed out the bankers after the crash of 2008 through a decade of Tory austerity policies, which included a seven-year public sector pay cap.

We’re not going to pick up the tab for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tax the super-rich. They must pay.

Sasha Simic
London N16