Scotland’s education secretary, John Swinney, has warned that schools in the country are unlikely to return to normal any time soon after the summer.

Mr Swinney also said today that it will be a legal requirement for parents to send their children to school, and that the 2021 exams could be put back by a few weeks.

The Scottish government announced plans to reopen schools on 11 August with a “blended learning” model, which would mean pupils still spending a large chunk of their time learning from home.

Easing coronavirus lockdown: The biggest curriculum challenge of the century?

Reopening schools: How are other countries doing it?

SQA exams: ‘Impossible’ to deliver usual exams in 2021, says union

Recent reports have suggested that schools may not return to anything approaching normal in 2020-21.

Coronavirus: Reopening schools safely

Speaking on BBC television’s Politics Scotland today, Mr Swinney said he could not say how long the blended model would be in place. It would not last “for a minute longer than is necessary”, but he warned that “we’ll have to maintain the social distancing approaches for some considerable time to come”.

Mr Swinney said: “There will be changes and differences in the way we deliver education as a consequence of requirements for social distancing.”

He also said it will be a legal requirement for parents to send their children to school, regardless of anxiety about the virus, but the homeschooling side of learning will not be legally enforced.

He added: “I understand their concerns. It was very clear in the period as we ran into lockdown there was a huge amount of parental anxiety about sending their children to school and it’s a really important part of my role to make sure that parents are confident about the steps that they’ve got to take.

“We’ll have considered discussions with parents about the issues about which they’re concerned.”

Mr Swinney, who is also deputy to first minister Nicola Sturgeon, said he was supportive of local authorities seeking to use public buildings to hold classes, such as town halls and libraries, as well as hiring more teachers to increase the number of classes and reduce the size of the cohorts, and was willing to enter talks with councils on funding needs.

He said: “What I’ve said to local authorities is, ‘Come forward with those proposals and we’ll look at those proposals.’

“Councils are beginning to set out the approaches that they’re taking. They will be considered and assessed by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education and will be tested to see whether or not these ideas can be utilised.”

Mr Swinney once again indicated that planning continues for exams next spring, at the usual time of year.

He said: “But we have said to schools to gather evidence on achievements of pupils on an ongoing basis.

“I think it is practical and possible to deliver an exam diet but we need to take into account a number of circumstances.

“It might be possible to start it later on in the year and enable more learning opportunities.”