Schools may not be ready by August, warn teachers
Unions say health risk and a lack of time to prepare could delay return date
TEACHERS yesterday warned that schools may not reopen in August – threatening to derail a key part of the SNP’s plan to ease lockdown.
Two teaching unions said there was a risk that staff would not have enough time to get schools ready to admit pupils again on August 11.
And there are fears that many teachers will be unable to go to work if they have underlying health conditions or childcare problems.
Nicola Sturgeon said this week that teachers would return to school next month, while from August pupils would learn from home and in the classroom.
Last night, Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘The August 11 date does depend on a number of things, not least a lot of preparation by every council in the country, and a continued reduction in Covid-19 cases. Above all, it depends on the Scottish Government having test and trace in place, working, by then.
‘I will be asking John Swinney next week when he will confirm this opening of schools.’
Yesterday Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said the ‘first issue’ is that schools will reopen in August ‘if the public health conditions allow’, and ‘staff will be back in June if the public health conditions allow’.
Mr Flanagan said: ‘The reason we had lockdown was to support the country’s efforts to control the virus. That consideration is still front and centre in terms of the EIS but also, in terms of the Scottish Government. I think the First Minister made clear that all of these plans can only happen if the virus is under control.
‘If it is under control and staff are able to start preparing, that will be critical because the changes [the blended learning approach in schools and online] are significant changes.
‘They probably represent the biggest challenge that we’ve had in the last three decades.’
Mr Flanagan told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘The time is very short and I don’t think everything will be ready for August.
‘We still don’t know, for example, what’s going to happen with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) qualifications, and that’s fairly critical to what’s on offer for the senior phase pupils.
‘Schools are busy in a normal scenario so if pupils are attending school for less than half the week, there’s going to have to be a very strong offer in terms of remote learning to make sure that they’re kept on track.
‘But I think when schools do reopen, the biggest concern for teachers will be to support the wellbeing of young people because this will have been a traumatic experience for them.’
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, said that going back to school on August 11 ‘should be an aspiration’.
He added: ‘If we’re not ready by then – because we don’t have much time – than we will be saying to ministers, “Hold off”.’ Mr Searson
‘We’ll be saying to ministers, Hold off’
said that councils needed to hire staff to help pupils negotiate new hygiene control measures and supervise handwashing and social distancing.
He said: ‘We will probably have ten pupils in a class so it may be that to begin with kids are only going to school once a week.
‘It won’t be a case of just opening the doors again and there will be a lot of induction. Kids will not be coming back to the schools that they left.’ Scottish Tory education spokesman Jamie Greene said that schools would have to ‘work hard to accommodate the new regulations in order to open safely in August’. He added: ‘It is therefore crucial that unions, teachers, the Scottish Government and public health advisers pull out all the stops and work together to make it happen.’
Commenting on home learning, Eileen Prior of Connect, formerly the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said: ‘The reality is as we move into this blended approach where there will be some time at school, some time at home, there’s a massive amount of work to be done... so that families feel they know what’s going on and they can support their children.’
Yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said that ministers wanted to increase the number of spaces available at childcare ‘hubs’, which are
currently offered to the children of key workers and the most vulnerable youngsters. She stressed that the Scottish Government was not going to be able to ‘take away all of the difficulties and challenges people will be facing’.
She added: ‘None of this is going to be easy in the weeks and months to come, there is no point me trying to pretend otherwise.
‘But we have worked our way through a lot of difficulties in the last three months and shown we can do things we never believed we could do.’
The Scottish Government said: ‘The return date of August 11 has been set after detailed consultation and discussion with all our local authority and trade union partners. Our overriding priority is ensuring the health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff and giving parents the confidence schools are safe.’