Scotland’s education secretary John Swinney said today that “good progress” is being made towards the planned reopening of schools following the coronavirus lockdown.
Mr Swinney also said that he would reveal details later this week about safety measures for teachers and pupils in school.
He also warned, however, that the reopening of schools hinged on whether measures to suppress Covid-19 continued to be successful.
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Mr Swinney, who was speaking at first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus briefing today, said: “We are making good progress towards our shared ambition of reopening schools in August.”
The Scottish government’s Covid-19 Education Recovery Group is meeting a number of times this week and Mr Swinney said that he would give a more detailed statement to Parliament on Thursday. This will lay out information on “vital health protection measures”, including “quick access to testing for all symptomatic staff and pupils”.
Mr Swinney stressed, however, that “we will only be able to reopen schools if we continue to effectively suppress the virus”.
He added: “A decision on that question will be made on 30 July.”
Earlier today, it emerged that Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, had called on all local authorities to recruit more teachers as education recovers from the Covid-19 lockdown.
