Scotland to enforce face masks for older pupils

SECONDARY pupils as young as 15 and their teachers are to be forced to wear face masks in class across most of Scotland from Monday, under controversial changes unveiled by SNP ministers yesterday.

John Swinney, the education secretary, published new guidance ordering children in the fourth, fifth and sixth years of secondary school and their teachers to start wearing face coverings in classrooms. They should also wear masks in school corridors when they are moving around and in communal areas.

In addition, the guidance said face coverings should be worn by adults in all Scotland’s schools where they cannot remain two metres apart from staff or pupils. Mothers and fathers were also ordered to wear a mask from Monday when they drop off or pick up their offspring.

But a leading parents’ group reacted furiously to the change for older pupils, arguing that wearing a mask for several hours was “incredibly uncomfortable” and did not represent a normal school day.

Usforthem Scotland, which helped force Mr Swinney into a U-turn over keeping schools closed, questioned the evidence on which the change had been based and said it appeared to have “been made on a whim”.

A report by an expert advisory group to the Scottish Government recommended parents and adults wear face coverings on secondary school sites but did not mention pupils.

However, Mr Swinney said the evidence suggests “there is slightly higher infection and transmission risks for people around the age of 16 to 17.”

The rules apply to state schools in 19 of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, which Nicola Sturgeon has placed in Level 3 of her five-tier lockdown system. They include most of the Central Belt such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Dundee and Stirling.

The restrictions also apply to Level 4, the highest tier that imposes almost full lockdown, but no councils have been placed in that so far. Ms Sturgeon’s tiers are numbered zero to four.