Social distancing set to be scrapped for school pupils
●Scotland prepares to follow Australia by allowing children to mix freely ●Teachers ready to return full time to classroom in August with safeguards
Scotland is set to follow the example of countries such as Australia by scrapping social distancing for pupils to enable a full-time return to schools in August.
Shelving controversial plans for a “blended” learning approach that would see pupils attend just half a week or less, education secretary John Swinney announced children could go back “full time” after the summer holidays.
Mr Swinney indicated earlier this month the blended approach may be in place for a year, and councils have spent recent weeks drawing up plans for pupils to be at school one, two or three days a week.
But the education secretary said other countries had shown full-time education could be restored without social distancing as cases of coronavirus fall. Studies suggesting a much lower infection rate among children has led other countries, including Australia, to have no social distancing between pupils in school, while maintaining it for teachers and parents.
Teaching union the EIS warned safeguards such as face coverings, Perspex shields and enhanced testing would need to be in place to protect
staff. Mr Swinney told MSPS yesterday the picture looked “more positive” than when the blended learning plan was drawn up in mid-may.
He said: “We have seen Scotland make significant progress. There are now only 2,000 infectious people in Scotland – a reduction of around 90 per cent since May.
“There has been a sustained downward trend in Covid-19 deaths. Intensive care cases now stand at a fraction of what they were.
“If we stay on this trajectory, which cannot be taken for granted, by August the position will be even better. That is the good news. That means we are now able to update our planning assumptions.
“If we stay on track, if we all continue to do what is right and if we can further suppress this terrible virus, the Government believes that we should prepare children to be able to return to school full time in August. I must stress that this is the aim that the Government is now working towards.” But he insisted this remains “conditional” on scientific and health advice and the continued progress in bringing down cases of the virus.
Scientific advisers are also assessing whether any changes can be made to social distancing in schools. It was recently announced that schools will return full time in Northern Ireland after the summer with a one metre distancing rule in place.
Scotland’s national exams – Highers and nationals – were cancelled this year as a result of the schools closure, with pupils to be awarded a grade based on class work and teacher assessments.
Mr Swinney had previously warned there could be a repeat next year, but the education secretary insisted yesterday that he now expects exams will take place.
He said: “The planning intention is that the 2021 exam diet will take place and the planning is being put in place for that. My expectation is that it will take place.”
But they may be delayed by a “matter a weeks” to provide pupils with extra teaching they will have effectively missed in the final weeks of the 2019/20 terms when the courses for the following year get under way.
Mr Swinney said: “If there is an opportunity, because young people have lost a period of learning, they would normally have started classes at the latest probably in early June, some would have started them in June for national 5s, so there may be a slight delay to the timetable, but the planning assumption is that the 2021 exam diet will go ahead.”
Labour’s Iain Gray described the announcement by Mr Swinney as the “mother and father” of all ministerial climbdowns. He said: “All of those occasionswhenhehasspoken to Parliament about this plan, it has been clear that blended learning is the only possibility for August.
“Ten days ago, Mr Swinney said it might last a year. On Friday, his co-chair of the education recovery group confirmed that blended learning was the only plan.
“Now at the last possible moment we have a completely new plan. We asked for a route map back to schools. It turns out, we’ve been on a mystery tour.”
Mr Swinney told Mr Gray in Parliament there would be no need for social distancing if children returned to school full time.
He said: “Our assumption of full-time education for young people assumes there is no physical distancing among young people.
“We believe that is possible when we look at the models being delivered in other countries that have successfully restored education.”
The Scottish Conservative’s education spokesman Jamie Greene said: “Recent events have exposed nothing but a complete vacuum of leadership in the handling of this issue.
“The reality is that today’s U-turn has been forced upon the Government after relentless campaigning from all quarters – political, academic, charitable and, most importantly, by parents themselves to whom we owe the most credit in all of this.”
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, accepted that as cases of the virus fall, guidance in relation to schools was likely to change.
But he warned “appropriate mitigations” must be in place to guard against any local “resurgence” of the virus.
Mr Flanagan said: “In terms of schools, this means looking at measures already being used elsewhere such as mandatory face coverings, protective Perspex shields, proactive testing of teachers and an appropriate level of physical distancing between pupils and most certainly between pupils and staff, alongside continued protections for vulnerable groups.
“A great deal of work at school level has already gone into planning for a blended learning model from 11 August, so any change to that will require time to adjust plans and conduct revised risk assessments..”
Parents had feared they could not return to work if their children were being taught from home and small business chiefs said the prospect of a full-time return to schools would come as a relief.
Colin Borland, the Federation of Small Business’ director of devolved nations, said: “The Education Secretary has made the right call by ensuring that schools will offer fulltime education after the summer holidays.”
On 14 June, John Swinney said it was “unlikely” that schools in Scotland would return to normal next year, as councils like Edinburgh’s drew up plans which meant children could be in classrooms for as little as one day a week.
Yesterday, the Education Secretary said schools would re-open full-time and with no social distancing in classrooms from August, explaining this change by pointing to a sustained fall in the number of Covid-19 deaths and a 90 per cent reduction in the number of people known to be infected since May.
Opposition politicians were unimpressed. The Conservatives called it a “screeching U-turn” following an “outburst of anger from parents”, while Labour claimed Swinney had performed “the mother and father of all ministerial climbdowns”.
The Scottish Government has clearly changed course, but the degree of the turn and whether it was a sensible response to changed circumstances or a panicked attempt to placate angry voters are, for now at least, not the serious issues. Instead, the serious issues are whether Swinney’s new plan can be implemented safely to allow the education of Scotland’s children to resume in a more effective way and for parents to return to work rather than providing childcare.
Many parents, teachers and other school staff will need reassurance that the new arrangements are indeed safe and not just a kneejerk reaction to political pressure. So the opposition’s main line of attack against the Scottish Government’s decision could actually inadvertently cause practical problems in the real world. If parents refuse to send their children to school, what then?
Another issue is that the change could increase pressure from businesses for a reduction in the two-metre social distancing rule, although the main justification for scrapping it in classrooms is the low rates of Covid-19 among children.
However well or badly the Scottish Government is handling the current crisis, we are essentially stuck with them. A full discussion of their competence is better left until closer to next year’s Holyrood election.
And that’s because making political capital out of a change of policy creates a pressure on ministers to defend mistakes, rather than correct them. Given we are attempting to eradicate a deadly disease and save Scotland’s economy from ruin, we still need our politicians to work together to plot the best course of action.