Don’t send pupils home for missing masks, says Swinney

Pupils should not be sent home if they refuse to comply with new guidance making face cove rings mandatory in corridors and on school transport, Scotland’ s education secretary has said.

John S win ney announced updated guidance for schools making it mandatory for pupils and staff to wear masks because of the “difficulty” of physical distancing in “crowded corridor environments”.

But he rejected the idea that pupils should be sent home if they failed to wear a face covering, when asked yesterday whether he agreed with the suggestion by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) at the Government’s corona virus briefing.

“We’ ve got to make sure that the wearing of face coverings in schools becomes essentially a habitual part of school life,” he said. “In our guidance, we make it clear that young people should be encouraged and motivated and required to do that, but it should not result in exclusion from school if they don’t do that.

“I don’ t agree with the SSTA that young people should be excluded from school if they’re not wearing face coverings, but I do think schools need to build up the cultural understanding and awareness of the importance of wearing face coverings as something that is done to protect all of the school population – staff and pupils alike.”

The new rules came into effect yesterday based on World Health Organisation advice.