Parents: This will destroy education

Delayed return ‘condemns pupils to scrapheap’

PUPILS are being ‘left on the scrapheap’ as they are forced to wait until mid-April until schools return fully, it was claimed yesterday.

Pupils in primary 4-7 are scheduled to return to the classroom from the middle of next month, nicola Sturgeon said.

More senior secondary pupils will also return from March 15, although the First Minister said this would be for ‘at least part of their learning’. The final phase is scheduled for April 5, when all pupils would return.

However, this is in the middle of the Easter holidays, meaning it may be April 12 or 19 before many pupils return, depending on local holiday arrangements. It means all pupils will return much later in Scotland than in England, when schools reopen to all on March 8.

Jo Bisset, organiser of parents group UsForThem Scotland, said: ‘This appalling decision leaves secondary pupils on the scrapheap.

‘Despite all the evidence about harm being caused to young people through schools being closed, still the First Minister won’t listen.

‘Her government is very deliberately choosing a course of action that will wreck their education and obliterate the formative years of their lives.’

Asked if the holidays would be altered, nicola Sturgeon said: ‘We will continue to consider how all of that fits with the Easter holidays.

‘Suffice to say, we want to get every young person back into face-to-face education as soon as possible.’

The independent Kilgraston School in Perthshire has announced the Easter holieducation days will change because of the decision.

Kilgraston head teacher Dorothy MacGinty said: ‘In light of today’s FM statement, Kilgraston School has decided to finish four days earlier before Easter holidays and return five days earlier to allow maximum face-toface teaching.’

Scottish Conservative spokesman Jamie Greene said: ‘The SnP have created confusion by choosing a return date smack in the middle of the Easter holidays, showing they either did zero planning or tried to downplay this delay.

‘What began as a few weeks of remote learning has turned into a whole term of lost time – and parents are rightly furious at the added confusion.’

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of teaching union EIS, said: ‘The EIS continues to believe a blended model, with approximately half of pupils in class at any one time, would provide a more suitable basis for the return.

‘With rates of infection in the community still a cause for concern, reducing numbers in classrooms is the safest approach to minimising risk.’

‘Parents are rightly furious’