Pupils won’t return to class until January 18
Parents’ fury as unions ‘wear down weak SNP’
THOUSANDS of pupils are facing further major disruption to their education after Nicola Sturgeon last night announced an extension to the Christmas holidays.
As thousands prepare to wind up for the festive break over the next couple of days, the First Minister has declared that pupils will not return to schools until January 18 – with home schooling taking place from January 11.
But as teaching unions welcomed the decision, the move sparked an angry backlash from some parents.
Pressure group UsForThem Scotland said: ‘We refuse to accept this decision. Schools must stay open. Higher pupils who should be sitting prelims are once again thrown into uncertainty.’
Group organiser Johannah Bisset added: ‘Kids have already had this academic term ruined. Nothing has changed with regard to the harm to our kids from Covid. All that’s changed is that teaching unions have worn down our weak Government.’
Earlier this month, schools were left to decide whether their pupils would sit prelim exams this winter after Higher and Advanced Higher exams were cancelled.
Teenagers will be graded by teacher estimates, which Education Secretary John Swinney has described as ‘holistic judgment’.
Yesterday, following the First Minister’s announcement, he said the decision to move to online learning for most pupils at the start of term was a ‘difficult one’.
Mr Swinney added that schools which had planned to open this week would still open but would then return from January 5 for staff, vulnerable pupils and children of key workers.
He said: ‘All other pupils will start remote learning on January 11, with the aim being a full return on January 18. This will be subject to review.’
Ahead of the announcement, Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, had tweeted: ‘Following the Christmas break, the EIS is clear that any move back to tier 4 should trigger an automatic consideration of moves towards blended or remote learning.
‘Schools cannot stay open at all costs. The safety of pupils and staff has to be the priority.’
Last night, EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: ‘The EIS welcomes the decision to delay the return of pupils after the Christmas break until January 11. With a large number of schools already closed for the break, this late decision will once again create planning challenges for teachers, but schools are much better prepared for remote learning than was the case in March. Given that the EIS has been calling for a “firebreak” around the Christmas break, we view this announcement as being the correct one.’
Meanwhile, parents shared their anger on social media.
Father Craig Mcmillan wrote: ‘We should be pushing legal action and out in force demonstrating.
The new strain is just more fear narrative. Lobby MPs and local councils. Bombard them.
‘It’s becoming education for the privileged only, based on fiction and cases. They are worried the EIS will ballot teachers for strike action over unsafe schools after the so-called Christmas Day infections.’
Another parent posted: ‘We need a revolution, take to the streets, it’s time. Enough is enough. There is no hope for some children that are struggling to cope, especially going into a new year.’ The mother of a teenager in S5 said her son was now ‘cross with the whole thing’.
She added: ‘They cancelled the exams and the whole year wanted to sit them. Now he faces more supposed online learning. It won’t happen. Just ridiculous.
‘No one is ever going to believe these kids have the brains they have, because they’ve not had the exams and will always be classed as those who got easy results.’
Of those schools which decided to
‘We refuse to accept this ... schools must stay open’ ‘We need a revolution. Take to the streets’
go ahead with prelims, many have swerved away from mid-January, with some holding them this week and others in February.
Earlier this month, Mr Swinney said: ‘What we will be doing is providing the framework within which teachers can formulate their judgments, based on the ability of young people in carrying out the particular assessments and pieces of work specified by the SQA.
‘The SQA said preliminary exams were an optional part of forming this assessment.’
In a tweet last night, the Scottish Trades Union Council said: ‘The First Minister says she wants to do “everything she can to stop the virus overwhelming us”. It therefore is a serious mistake not to close schools next week.’