The First Minister of Scotland has announced that children will be returning to school amid the lockdown in an effort to resume normal life.
Yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon announced that children in P1-P3 and those at pre-school would be returning to school from Monday February 22nd. There has been less clarity for other students; it has been suggested that they will remain at home for now, apart from secondary students who need to complete coursework.
The First Minister also stated that it would be unlikely all students would return to school until March 15th at the earliest. The plans will go ahead despite no other mentions of the lockdown being eased any time soon. The message from both the First Minister and the Prime Minister is that the lockdown easing will be hesitant and will be carefully managed.
According to The Telegraph, the Prime Minister’s plans to re-open schools in March will be announced in the roadmap out of lockdown, which is to be set out on February 22nd. Returning to in-person teaching has been a big priority for many students, as online learning is leaving them feeling unprepared.
One student at Emmanuel College said: “You can’t absorb anything while looking at a computer screen … you can’t interact with the staff and actually discuss the subject properly.”
The UK Government has indicated it will open up new channels of support for catching up, since most children have been out of school since January 5th. A new “catch-up” task force will organise one-on-one tuition and summer schools, in an effort to help offset the lack of teacher-student contact that has impacted upon thousands of students throughout the country.
