Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 26 May 2020
On Mr Gibson’s first point, there has to be equity of access to education for young people. That is one of the fundamental principles of Scottish education; young people must be able to gain access to education services on an equitable basis. It is for that reason—to enable them to have that access—that we are putting in place the support that some young people might require due to a lack of digital connectivity.
In relation to the second point that Mr Gibson raised—the significance of which I recognise—we have to take great care in making judgments about the scientific advice and evidence that are available to us. All our judgments as a Government are designed to ensure that we take no actions that fuel coronavirus in our society, and that we take every action that we can to try to suppress its effects. The plans to resume education in the fashion that I have set out are consistent with those aspirations.
As we see progress being made, I hope to be in a position in which we can move away from the blended learning model and into the traditional formal schooling model. However, that will depend on our seeing further reductions in the key indicators that the First Minister set out in her statement last Thursday. Those key indicators are to do with the reproduction number, the number of admissions to intensive care units, the number of fatalities and the number of cases that have been diagnosed. Of course, the testing strategy that the First Minister announced at lunch time today will also provide us with a significant amount of information with which to determine the progress of coronavirus, which will influence our thinking.
Finally, there is an emerging evidence base around the transmissibility of Covid-19 among young people, which will also have a bearing on our thinking.