Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron has warned that parents of school-age children face many more months of disruption.
Mr Cameron issued his warning after questioning the First Minister earlier today about what she meant by “blended” learning, which is the form of education the Scottish Government is prescribing for schools when they finally open again on 11th August.
“The primary objective has to be to keep our children safe. In her response to my question, Nicola Sturgeon said that social distancing at school would have to continue, and acknowledged that this would be very challenging for everyone concerned. Blending in-school learning with home-schooling is going to be very testing indeed, especially for families with one or both parents working."
"Government is going to have to invest a lot of time and effort in ensuring that the right educational support is in place and that all school-children can digitally access learning materials, which I fear is not the case at the moment."
“Minimising disruption for our children across the Highlands and Islands is going to be critical, as well as getting them back into the rhythm of school life after many months of absence.”
Donald Cameron’s exchange with Nicola Sturgeon can be viewed here (at approx. 13:39): https://www.scottishparliament.tv/channel/the-debating-chamber
His question was: “Parents will understand why schools can’t open this term. But the idea of “blended” schooling in the Autumn term means that parents look likely to have to balance work and childcare and home schooling for months maybe until the end of the year. The education framework suggests there were differing views among the advisory group about the need for social distancing in schools. That being so, can the First Minister explain the rationale behind the proposed “blending” of in-school and in-home learning?”