Nicola Sturgeon ‘hugely anxious’ about Covid-19 impact on poorest young people as attainment gap analysis suspended

Nicola Sturgeon said she is “hugely anxious” about the disruptive impact Covid-19 is having on young people from some of Scotland’s most deprived communities.

Nicola Sturgeon said she was "hugely anxious" about the impact of the pandemic on young Scots from poorer backgrounds. Picture: Getty

The first minister said she was aware that children and young adults in vulnerable or impoverished settings were being forced to bear a “disproportionate impact” during the pandemic, but stressed to leave “no stone unturned” in ensuring they did not suffer more than those young Scots from more prosperous backgrounds.

With the widespread disruption to the Scottish education system meaning that pupils will be asked to learn via a blended model, concerns are mounting that a widening of the nation’s persistent attainment will be one of the unwanted legacies of the contagion.

Asked by The Scotsman at the Scottish Government’s daily coronavirus briefing if she could ensure young Scots from poorer areas would not have to endure a lifelong deficit as a result of the virus, Ms Sturgeon said “I can stand here and look directly into the camera to every young person watching this and say I’ll do everything I can - the government will do everything it can - to make sure you don’t pay a long-term price for what you’ve lived through these last few months.

“I say that to all young people, but i absolutely recognise the disproportionate impact on young people who are living in more difficult, vulnerable or deprived circumstances, and we will leave no stone unturned in trying to ensure any impact you suffer is not greater as a result.”

The Scottish Government today issued updated guidance for local authorities, schools, and early learning centres to support young people.

It includes advice for how to offer pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds “specific and targeted support and access to learning” as part of the staged re-opening of schools.

At the same time, however, the education secretary, John Swinney, has written to directors of education, notifying them that it is suspending the collection of literacy and numeracy attainment data used to monitor whether the attainment gap is closing.

In his letter, Mr Swinney said that while the government’s “priorities for improvement remain the same,” it wanted to “minimise any additional work that might be required at a time when resources are stretched.”

It comes as Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS union, warned that the blended teaching model - which sees pupils combine lessons in school with home learning - will have the biggest impact on pupils who are already disadvantaged already.

He told Holyrood’s education committee there is a need for an equity audit and an action plan to ensure that Scotland’s persistent attainment gap does not widen further.

Ms Sturgeon said she had not seen Mr Flanagan’s evidence, but said the decision by Mr Swinney to suspend the attainment data collection was an “inescapable decision” due to practical difficulties.

She explained: “Schools have not been open and young people have not been at school. We looked at all the ways to do it, but it simply would not be possible to do it in a meaningful way.

“But that does not mean that we are not hugely anxious about making sure that we understand these impacts and take action to mitigate these impacts.”

Ms Sturgeon pointed to extra investment to provide electronic devices for pupils from more deprived communities to try and “level the playing field,” and said the government was working with unions and parent groups to address such “hugely important” issues.

She added: “I don’t underestimate the challenges here but I absolutely will do everything in my power to make sure the young people of today don’t pay a long term price for what they’ve had to live through, through absolutely no fault of their own.”

A University of Glasgow report which surveyed 704 teachers – some 79 per cent of whom were in Scotland – about the impacts of the pandemic on learning found that nearly four out of ten teachers (38.9 per cent) expect many more of their children to be labelled at risk or have interventions from social services by the end of the lockdown period.

The figure rose significantly to 68.4 per cent among those teachers working with more deprived populations.

It found that while some 498 teachers agreed that their high attaining students were engaging well with online learning, just 25 agreed that their low attaining students were doing likewise.

Its authors, Dr David Lundie, a senior lecturer in education, and Dr Jeremy Law, also an education lecturer, warned that given many of the factors impacting children’s mental health and wellbeing relate to wider economic and social uncertainty, it cannot be the job of education alone to mitigate the impacts of recession or societal collapse.

They said the findings demonstrated the need for “particular investment in whole-school solutions to address the pastoral, emotional and mental health needs of children in the most deprived areas of the country.”

Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at the University of Edinburgh, has also warned that extended closure of Scotland’s schools will cause “irreversible” damage to some children’s education.

Asked about such warnings at the briefing, Ms Sturgeon said: “I wish we weren’t in this situation. There is nothing I’d wish for more just now than we didn’t have coronavirus, that our schools were open, that our kids across Scotland were right now in schools, learning as normal.

“There is no aspect of what we’re having to do to deal with this right now that is ideal or perfect. Much of it is far, far less than ideal, and there are implications and consequences of that that we have to try and mitigate, and we will do that.

“The other side of that is if we were not doing more of these things, we would be putting people more at risk from a deadly virus.”

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