Reopening schools was a ‘political distraction’

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of fast-tracking the reopening of schools in a bid to distract from her lengthy evidence session to the Holyrood inquiry.

Teaching union bosses yesterday claimed the decision to send primary four to seven pupils back full-time from today, along with the part-time return of secondary students was ‘political’.

And, they linked the decision to Miss Sturgeon’s appearance at the Holyrood inquiry probing the Scottish Government’s botched probe into harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.

On March 2, the First Minister announced that all secondary students would receive some facestress to-face teaching before the Easter holidays – moving forward the return of youngsters.

Previously, high schools had been set to reopen to the majority of students following the April break – but this was accelerated the day before she appeared before MSPs on the Holyrood committee.

Speaking yesterday on the BBC’s The Sunday Show, EIS assistant secretary Andrea Bradley said: ‘From our point of view we felt that the decision seemed to be more of a political one rather than one that was based on sound educational principle.

‘It wasn’t one that was taking account of the very real circumstances in which teachers are currently working and have been working, under really quite significant and pressure over the past six months or so.’

Asked what she meant by claims the decision was ‘political’ and whether she thought the government were trying to be seen as doing something, Ms Bradley said: ‘Well I think there’s an element of that and I think that we also have to have cognisance of the context within which the decision was announced.’

She added: ‘Our sense was that the Government was looking for a good news story that week and the reopening of schools on this kind of scale was certainly one way of providing that story.’

Ms Bradley raised concerns that continued changes to plans for schooling was leading to increased workloads for teachers.

She added: ‘Our concern is that by asking teachers to do too much, they are really going to struggle.’

Yesterday Education Secretary John Swinney rejected claims that the decision had been political – and claimed that the needs of youngsters had been put front and centre.

Mr Swinney said: ‘We were concerned about the wellbeing of S1 to S3 pupils who might feel excluded if we didn’t give them some opportunity for face-to-face learning before the Easter holidays. That was the one and only motivation that the Government had.’

Scottish Conservative education spokesman Jamie Greene said: ‘It is startling to hear a senior teaching union official effectively accuse Nicola Sturgeon of using Scotland’s school pupils for political distraction.

‘For that to be alleged is extraordinary and speaks to the erosion in trust in this SNP administration.’

‘Looking for a good news story’