A sixth form student says that the current lockdown is causing young people under 19 extreme stress and anxiety.

The government revealed last week that more than a third of the island’s active Covid cases were discovered in people aged 19 and under.

Mitzi Danielson-Kaslik, 17, goes to Ballakermeen High School and thinks the education she and others are receiving is inconsistent: ’Any help for school work has to be done by email which takes a lot longer and I feel the variety of workload that we get for different subjects is uneven - you can get loads from some and none from others.’

She also said that some students might not be able to access the internet from home and could be struggling: ’I’ve got a space to work and a computer, but for a lot of people they aren’t able to access an education at all.

’It’s a tricky one, saying that the safest place for people to be is at home, but for some people, especially vulnerable people, [for their education] it just isn’t.

’They may not catch Covid at home but there’s other things going on [at home].’

Yesterday, the Department of Education, Sport and Culture said that the opening of a hub school for children of key workers has been put on hold for the time being.

Students in the island will not sit GCSE or A Level exams this summer and instead have their grades determined by their schools.

Miss Danielson-Kaslik said that her school told her year group that they would not be able to re-sit exams: ’A lot more people got into sixth form than there normally would, so our year group is disproportionately large and they’ve told us that nobody will be allowed to re-take Year 12. This seems harsh.

’I hope to apply to Cambridge [University] next year. I take linguistic subjects, which requires a lot of discussion and this can’t happen as we’re not allowed to do Skype calls.

’It’s stressful, perpetually hearing the language of crisis in the [government] announcements.

’I don’t fault government’s response to Covid, but I do think the language they use and they way they advertise the updates is worrying and causes stress.

’It makes me feel like the government haven’t got our backs, that everything they do is based on public opinion.’

She said that some of her peers are having to work and study at the same time: ’A lot of my friends’ parents don’t get child benefit, and a lot of them have to work as compensation, as well as parents losing their jobs.

’They’ve got 20 hours of employment on top of school work. It makes it even more stressful.

’My biggest concern is that we are going to have "botched" results. What we will end up with is a table of results that doesn’t reflect the work we’ve done.

’It cheapens the whole system of A Levels. It doesn’t inspire me to work in lockdown if at the end of it you’re not going to sit an exam.’