Parents lead backlash over ‘chaotic’ back to school plan

Nicola Sturgeon has rowed back on a claim by her education secretary that blended learning in schools could last a year and next year’s exams could be cancelled, saying that schools will return to “100 per cent face-to-face teaching” as soon as possible.

Nicola Sturgeon says schools will return to normal as soon as possible

The First Minister yesterday revoked John Swinney’s statement from Sunday, as she attempted to reassure parents after rising concerns about the long-term impact of a lack of formal schooling on children. She spoke out as councils wrestle with getting pupils back into classrooms with two-metre social distancing in place.

Ms Sturgeon’s comments came as a new national parents campaign, “Better Than This for Scotland’s Children”, wrote to Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Commissioner asking him to “urgently investigate” whether legal educational guarantees were being breached by the Scottish Government. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said the economy would not recover until schools and nurseries were fully re-opened.

Scotland’s schools have been closed for 13 weeks, including the Easter holiday period. Local authorities are planning a staged return of pupils from 11 August.

At the weekend Mr Swinney said schools were unlikely to return to normal in the next academic year and exams in 2021 could be pushed later into the summer.

However, at the daily coronavirus briefing yesterday, the First Minister said schools would return to normal 
as soon as it was safe, and the Scottish Government was committed to holding the normal examination diet next year.

She said: “From 11 August our aim will be to return to normal schooling as quickly as we possibly can, recognising, of course, that we must build the confidence of parents, young people and teachers that schools are safe.

“While we have a duty to be open with parents, none of us have a crystal ball and the path this pandemic will take in the months ahead remains uncertain, but it’s absolutely not the case that we are planning for blended learning to last a year or anything like it. We do not want blended learning to last a single moment longer than is absolutely necessary, so we will be working with councils to return schools to normal as quickly as we can. We want young people to be back to having face-to-face teaching for 100 per cent of the school week as soon as it is feasible.”

Ms Sturgeon said the three-weekly reviews of the emergency coronavirus regulations by government and the Scottish Parliament would also now “include specific consideration” of how the virus was being transmitted in schools and among young people.

“Where that suggests that safety restrictions can be lifted or eased without putting young people and teachers at undue risk, then we will do so,” she said.

The government’s International Council of Education Advisors is also being consulted to take a view of how schools are returning to full operation in other countries. If there are “genuine issues of resources”, Ms Sturgeon said, the government would work with councils to “address those”.

Asked whether spending 50 per cent of time at school was enough, Ms Sturgeon said: “I don’t want to set a ceiling at this stage on the percentage of time that children will be in school from 11 August because I would want that to be maximised. I would be concerned if it was under 50 per cent – 11 August is a starting point and we will build on that as quickly as we can.”

However, general secretary of the teaching union the EIS, Larry Flanagan, said it was “unlikely” schools would “accommodate even 50 per cent of normal pupil numbers in classrooms at any one time” to be safe.

Concern among parents about the number of days available for children returning to school has seen the creation of a new campaign group, “Better Than This for Scotland’s Children”, led by Dundee Labour councillor Michael Marra.

The group has now written to Bruce Adamson, Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner, worried the government is breaching its legal educational obligations and that more families will be pushed into poverty.

As well as asking if the proposals are legal, the letter asks Mr Adamson to find out what is being done to support families who might have to deliver “up to 80 per cent of a school week” and “what is being done to ensure equity in access for all”.

Last night Mr Adamson said he believed the proposed blended model would not be enough to ensure children do not lose out. “We know the home-based learning that they have been doing just doesn’t work,” he said.

“It is no substitute whatsoever for a real-life, school-based education. The proposals for what has been described as blended learning unfortunately still seem to be heavily based on home learning. That’s a problem because it is going to have a real impact on children’s right to education.”

Concerns about the blended learning plan have also been raised by theFSB, which has warned local economies will not revive without schools and day nurseries being fully re-opened.

Andrew McRae, FSB’s Scotland policy chair, said: “There’s obviously a huge concern for employed parents.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director