Crisis talks on schools amid fears for teachers
CRISIS talks on reopening Scotland’s schools will take place tomorrow amid concerns over the safety of teaching staff.
Education Secretary John Swinney will meet trade union leaders, parent groups and councils to discuss the plan for schools to resume classes.
Trade union leaders are demanding a series of additional measures to protect teachers, including reducing class sizes in later secondary years if there is no social distancing.
Mr Swinney will then update MSPs on Thursday. Yesterday, he said he hopes to reach an agreement but warned any return to the classroom depends on continuing to ‘keep coronavirus at bay’.
Parents remain in limbo, with only three weeks to go until pupils are due to return on August 11.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Education Recovery
Group is due to meet on Wednesday. To provide clarity to staff, parents and pupils, the group has agreed to provide advice by July 30 to enable a decision on whether it is safe for pupils to return on a full-time basis.’
The Scottish Government initially considered ‘blended’ learning for the entire academic year but, following a backlash from parents and opponents, Mr Swinney later said distancing between pupils would no longer be required.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said this week that teachers should not have to face classes of 30 young adults because the Government’s advisers admit there is not enough evidence about the role that older pupils play in the transmission of the virus.
He added: ‘If you don’t have absolute physical distancing, then you should at least have smaller classes. A starting point should be practical class sizes which have 20 rather than 30 pupils.’
Stephen McCabe, joint chairman of the Scottish Government’s education recovery group, also told the Sunday Times the full-time return of schools is ‘not a done deal’. Asked about the comments yesterday, Mr Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘We are working very constructively with all of our stakeholders to secure the safe reopening of schools on a full-time basis in August.’
Pressed on whether unions could block the return of teachers if they are not satisfied, he said: ‘We are obviously working to secure agreement amongst all parties to make sure we have the safe reopening of schools – that is my objective and I want to make sure we get to that objective.
‘What will make it more difficult is if we have a high prevalence of coronavirus within the community.
‘If people want the schools to reopen – and I am at the front of the queue wanting schools to reopen because that’s in the best interests of children and young people for their wellbeing and for their educational development – then we have to keep coronavirus at bay to enable that to be the case.’
Last week, the Scottish Government’s scientific advisers said that while the role of younger pupils in transmission of the virus was understood to be limited, it was ‘less clear’ what the situation was ‘in relation to older, secondary school students’.
But they concluded no social distancing among students should be the approach taken ‘on the basis of the balance of known risks’.
‘Safe reopening in August’