School return pushed back with Covid rate still ‘too high’

THE majority of pupils will continue to be taught at home for at least another two weeks – with the extended lockdown meaning schools will remain closed.

Schools will be shut to most moving into February, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced.

Pupils were due to return to school on February 1 at the earliest, but Sturgeon said there is still too high a level of transmission of Covid-19 in communities to allow that.

Instead, she said it will be at least the middle of next month before a phased return will be possible.

No date has been given for a definite phased or full return – instead, the First Minister said ministers would review the situation on February 2.

She said she hoped to be able to provide a firmer timetable for parents and teachers by then.

Children of key workers and those considered vulnerable will still be able to go to school, but for all others home learning will remain in place.

Sturgeon said: “It is of course a priority for all of us to get children back to normal schooling as soon as possible.

“I know how much work teachers, school leaders and other staff are doing to support home learning and I am very grateful to them for that.

“But I also know just how challenging and stressful this situation is for families.”

It is the latest pushing-back of the date when schools are expected to re-open.

Schools have been closed since before Christmas, when they were initially scheduled to return on January 5.

The decision to put Scotland in Level Four of lockdown came with an announcement that schools would stay shut until Januray11 for children of key workers before a full return on January 18.

The national lockdown in January put that back to February1.

The First Minister said yesterday: “Our reluctant judgement is that community transmission of the virus is too high – and is likely to remain so for the next period – to allow a safe return to school on February 1. The Cabinet decided today that, except for vulnerable and key worker children, school and nursery premises will remain closed until mid-February.

“If it is at all possible, as I very much hope it will be, to begin even a phased return to in-school learning in mid-February, we will.”

Scotland’s largest teaching union backed the decision to keep schools closed for the time being.

EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “With rates of community transmission still high, the Scottish Government has made the correct decision in maintaining the current models of provision for schools to drive down the R figure, which we regard as a prerequisite for schools reopening.

“While the EIS wants to see schools fully operational as soon as possible, this can only be achieved when it is safe for all students and staff to return.”