Scottish Government should explain seismic U-turn on back-to-school policy
A week is a long time in pandemics! Only last week we were being told by the Education Secretary that for the next year or possibly longer Scottish school children would be on a severely restricted regime offering as little as one day a week in school in most cases. Now we are informed that pupils will be in attendance, as usual, five days a week! What seismic change has led to the abrupt shelving of the socalled ‘blended’ model?
No doubt the change, which councils have described as “a bolt from the blue” (your report, June 25) will have been based on scientific evidence and can in no way be the result of political pressure or a reaction to the outcry from parents all over the country. What new evidence leads to the conclusion that full attendance will now be safe?
On the very same day as John Swinney’s announcement, Ian Blackford demanded that the UK government publish not only the conclusions based upon the evidence from advisory scientific bodies but also the evidence itself. I look forward to the SNP doing exactly the same in relation to the evidence which has brought about such a screeching U-turn in policy. Every employee in every school, and even more importantly, every parent of every pupil surely deserves no less.
COLIN HAMILTON Braid Hills Avenue, Edinburgh
I have just listened to the phone–in on Radio Scotland on the issue of full time education resuming in Scotland in August.
This pandemic has certainly turned things upside down and as the Education Secretary, John Swinney, acknowledged when announcing a return to full-time education, this has only come about because the public has adhered to the lock-down and been patient.
With the government doing what they can to restore some form of normality to the education system, I was rather taken aback to hear some grandparents saying the scenario they find themselves in of dropping off and collecting grandchildren from school has not been taken into consideration in the government statement of a full-time return to education.
Grandparents play a huge role in so many families, but the government simply can’t be everything to everybody andsomeresponsibilityhasto lie with the parents, otherwise we will become a real nanny state. Safety measures are paramount in Mr Swinney’s announcement, but in the unprecedented circumstances the country is in, a return to full-time education is a bold move, but a necessary move in the interest of the country going forward on the long and winding road of recovery from Covid-19.
CATRIONA C CLARK
Hawthorn Drive Banknock, Falkirk