Tory councillor hails city education chief for ‘ fantastic job’ as schools prepare to make decisions on return
GLASGOW councillors are worried that the latest lockdown will have a detrimental effect on young people and widen the attainment gap even further. Conservative councillor Euan Blockley has written to the director of education, Maureen McKenna, to ask her what measures have been put in place to prevent this.
Ms McKenna has defended the decision to keep all of the city’s schools open, saying vulnerable pupils had been put at risk during the last lockdown because teachers “didn’t see enough children”.
She said decisions about classroom numbers would be left to the discretion of schools “who know their families” and that the council was adopting a “less rigid” approach than other local authorities.
Following this decision, Mr Blockley said: “The Children and Young People’s Commissioner, Bruce Adamson, has warned that closing schools poses a ‘ serious risk of harm to the wellbeing of children and young people’ and online learning is being provided ‘ inconsistently’ across Scotland.
“We need to ensure that no child is left behind and that the attainment gap, already a huge problem in Glasgow, is not made even worse due to the pandemic.
“SNP complacency over support and learning will not only cost pupils the next few weeks of schooling, it will potentially hinder their future progress and cause the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils to stretch even wider.
“Our director of education has announced that she wants to keep the schools open for as many people as possible.
“She understands the concerns and worry about the attainment gap, which is quite big in Glasgow at the moment.”
Glasgow City Council has used the Scottish Government’s digital inclusion money to buy iPads and boost connectivity for families who previously did not have access to WiFi. It is hoped during the January lockdown they will be able to access their classwork online.
Mr Blockley added: “The attainment gap between poorer kids in Castlemilk compared to some of the pupils in Carmunnock or Kings Park is already very big and I think the worry and concern that I had is this could
increase. I think a lot of us as councillors are worried about kids missing out on education, especially now the schools are going to be closed for the whole of January.
“Secondary school students are usually sitting their prelims around about this time and even for primary
school children, a day off is a missed opportunity, let alone four or five weeks.
“We have emailed the council about this to ensure that proper digital equipment is delivered to everyone, but the director of education has done a fantastic job in this situation.”