From The Tines this morning. 😱
Tens of thousands of pupils may have to repeat an entire academic year if coronavirus restrictions continue to disrupt their education.
Under a worst-case scenario being considered by Scottish officials, all exams and assessments would be put on hold and pupils asked to retake classes.
This summer’s exams have already been scrapped but cancelling the award of the qualifications would be another blow for pupils, with consequences for families, higher education establishments and employers.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority said that it was working through “a range of scenarios and is considering further flexibilities” after a report in the Scottish Mail on Sunday.
With pupils of all ages being home-schooled, John Swinney, Scotland’s education secretary, said that priority was being given to the return of S4 to S6 pupils, who face exam assessments this summer, along with children with special educational needs.
He added that a phased return was likely, though he gave no indication of when the process would begin.
“We are exploring the merits of early learning and childcare and some of the younger primary aged groups returning at an earlier stage than other pupils,” he told the BBC.
“The needs of S4 to S6 pupils facing assessment on national qualifications were being considered, along with the requirements of youngsters with learning support needs, he added.
“These are likely to be the groups which we consider first and we will give as much notice as possible about the timescales that can be put in place.”
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The safety of pupils and staff would be a primary concern, he added.
Mr Swinney was speaking after research by the Herald on Sunday showed patchy provision of online teaching in Scotland.
Of the 27 councils which responded to questions about the extent of daily live online lessons, nine indicated that all schools were providing it.
Orkney council said that live lessons were limited because of poor connectivity and on Shetland teaching was “optional”. Edinburgh city council said that not all schools were being offered live daily lessons.
Aberdeen city council said it was unlikely that live lessons were offered every day “across all subject areas”, while Midlothian council said that the “vast majority” were holding live sessions, and more are starting next week.
Scottish Borders, North Ayrshire, and Angus councils could not be sure whether all the schools in their area were getting live online teaching every day.
The local authorities that said that all their schools were offering daily live lessons include West Lothian, Fife, Moray, Renfrewshire, Stirling, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Inverclyde.
West Dunbartonshire council loaned more than 2,000 Chromebooks to families to support home schooling while ensuring all schools provided daily online lessons. The council said that schools were timetabling five hours of online teaching per day, which includes a mix of live and pre-recorded lessons for pupils.
None of the councils that responded was able to say they had set a standard time for live online classes or were able to lay out how long pupils were getting with their teachers online.
Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, said that general standards were required for remote teaching. To try to ensure some common standards, the Scottish government should be setting minimum standards. They might reply that it is up to individual local authorities, but setting minimum standards would not stop individual authorities from going beyond these.”
Evidence showed that for online teaching to be effective, there had to be regular, live full-class teaching, with interactive opportunities between pupil and teacher, including regular one-to-one live conversations between the teachers and pupils, he added.
Teachers are undervalued
Scotland’s biggest teaching union has accused the Scottish government of putting the Holyrood elections before classroom safety.
Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, said that ministers had “no empathy” with teachers and that they felt “undervalued, particularly by government and the political class.”
He told the Herald on Sunday: “Most [teachers] have been living on the edge and torn between the desire to do their best for students but also knowing they’re at risk on a daily basis. A lot feel undervalued, particularly by government and the political class. It can be a demoralising experience. We’ve said directly to government . . . that it’s shown a distant lack of empathy with the challenges that have existed in schools, as if there are no issues to be concerned about. They’ve underplayed teacher concerns.”
Ms Sturgeon had “an eye on the political optics as much as anything else” he said. “The Scottish government said ‘the risk to teenagers is no greater than to adults’. Fine, but there’s quite a high risk to adults.”
Mr Flanagan, who sits on the Covid Education Recovery Group, raised concerns about the decision to keep schools open until December. “At the time we were calling for a ‘firebreak’ while the government and local authorities were saying ‘no’, but looking back at the data for the period it shows that school infections had reached their highest peak in all age groups since the pandemic started.”
The Scottish government said its “top priority” was the health and safety of pupils, staff and teachers, adding that: “The current lockdown demonstrates that commitment to keeping people safe.”