Parents’ anger at Scotland postcode lottery in online school teaching

Nicola Sturgeon has been challenged to publish a timetable for the full return of children to schools amid concerns over a “postcode lottery” in online learning for pupils in lockdown and the impact of “blended learning” on the attainment gap.

In a series of bad-tempered exchanges at First Minister’s Questions in Holyrood yesterday, Ms Sturgeon was heavily criticised over her government’s plans for returning children to school in August with a mix of home and in-school learning to cope with social distancing.

She was repeatedly pressed on how the Scottish Government intended to support parents and local authorities, just hours after education secretary John Swinney held a torrid online discussion with parents who raised their concerns about a “postcode lottery” and lack of consistency in home learning across Scotland.

Only a third of those taking part in 
the online forum, which attracted 4,000 concerned parents, said their child had received “live or recorded” online lessons amid growing complaints about a lack of face-to-face contact with teachers.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon alongside Deputy First Minister John Swinney during First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament. Picture: Fraser Bremner/Scottish Daily Mail/PA Wire

The First Minister said she was trying to move “heaven and earth” to get people’s lives back to normal, and accused opposition politicians of “over-simplifying” complex issues and “not being sufficiently interested” in resolving them.

But Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said her approach to the reopening of schools had been a series of “half measures and buck-passing”. He urged Ms Sturgeon to provide councils with the money needed to get schools open again, adding that parents across the country were furious “at the SNP’s lack of ambition in maximising face-to-face teaching time”.

Citing the views of one parent who said “while careers can be furloughed, childhood cannot”, Mr Carlaw said: “We must not put a price tag on our children’s future. But that’s exactly what the SNP is doing with this completely unsatisfactory plan for a partial return.

“Parents, teachers and pupils are demanding the SNP government shows more imagination, more creative thinking, when it comes to getting education off the ground again. But all we’ve seen so far is dithering and buck-passing.

“Nicola Sturgeon knew back in March that something would have to be done to get children back into the classroom, but still things are a complete mess. The SNP needs to sort this out now or risk failing an entire generation of young people.”

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) has already asked for more financial help for councils, and revealed that local authorities had net additional costs of £145m between March and June to deal with the pandemic across all services, and councils were still hoping to get the £30m digital learning monies the government had said it would allocate.

Yesterday in Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon said: “I want to get schools back to normal, I want to get the economy back to normal, as quickly as possible, but I also know that all of that has to be safe.”

She added: “Nothing is more important in all of that in getting our children’s education back to normal and putting plans in place to allow children to catch up on missed education…

“In common with England, Wales and Northern Ireland we are having to bring schools back with physical distancing in place, the challenge is to maximise the time children spend in schools. The second strand is to consider alternative measures which might allow schools to operate as normally as possible, including a robust test and protect system which is what we have put in place.

“What I would say to parents and young people is that this has my total commitment. To those in this chamber and to anyone suggesting that these issues are simple, they are perhaps showing they’re not interested in sufficiently understanding them. We must move cautiously and safely.”

Saying she would not “act recklessly to put the lives of children, teachers or the wider community at risk”, Ms Sturgeon said the government was “working through” the issues and admitted she had been “tested” by the pandemic.

“People will make their own judgments on how I rise to that, but opposition politicians are tested by this as well, and the approach Jackson Carlaw is taking perhaps reveals more about him and his party’s character and ability than it does about me, and I’m not sure people looking at that right now will see an appealing picture.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard quoted a poll from Mr Swinney’s virtual question and answer session on Tuesday night. Of the 4,000 parents involved, only 33 per cent said their school had provided online lessons, live or recorded, while 62 per cent said there had been no virtual contact with teachers.

Mr Leonard also said that of the 25,000 laptops promised by the government four weeks ago, “not one single device has been issued: not one”.

While parents wanted “clarity they’ve had nothing but mixed messages” he said. “Instead of clarity we have seen the First Minister contradict her deputy, contradict her advisers, then contradict herself. This is not clarity – it is chaos. Why can’t you publish a detailed route map and a timetable for a return to full-time face-to-face schooling?

“At the start of this crisis you rightly channelled resources into the NHS, the NHS Louisa Jordan was created and new equipment was brought into hospitals right across Scotland. So where is the commitment, the energy, the drive and conviction, where is the national plan and leadership, where is the ambition to tackle this schools crisis with the same urgency – to pull out all the stops, to make the resources available, to get our schools safely reopened and to uphold our children’s right to an education?”

Ms Sturgeon said: “The commitment is there but in reality that involves putting in place the plans and doing the hard work to turn ambition into reality which is the process we’re going through right now.”