Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 02 March 2021
I will come on to the point about teachers directly in a second but, with the greatest respect, Willie Rennie’s overall characterisation is just not correct. We have set dates and we are sticking to those dates, but we said last week that, if the data allows it, we will accelerate. That is the right and proper way to do it. I said last week that we hoped that all primary school children would be back from 15 March. We had to confirm that today, which I have done, and I think that I said last week that we wanted to try to get as many secondary school pupils back, as much as possible, into school and we have been working to confirm what I have just confirmed today.
I said last week, I think, that I would confirm next week the other changes that we hope to make on 15 March and that the week after that we would set out more timelines for the period after 26 April. I have just confirmed all of that today, so that has not changed. What has changed, which is a good thing, is that the data is slightly more promising than it was when I stood here last week. Last week, we were looking at a plateauing of cases, which now seem to be back firmly into decline. That allows us to assess whether there are more things that we can do, earlier than we previously anticipated. That is the way we have always done this and it is the right way to proceed.
I have every respect and huge gratitude for what teachers have done over the past year. I do not doubt for a minute that they are exhausted, in the way that many people working across many different sectors of our society will be, and we owe them a huge amount. I think that most teachers want to see children back in school as quickly as possible. We have to do that in a phased way to make it safe. We listen very carefully to the views of teachers through the EIS, for example, and the education recovery group and we come to a balanced decision.
I cannot imagine that there are many people across the country right now who do not think that it is right to prioritise the wellbeing and education of young people—I am not suggesting that Willie Rennie is doing that—but we need to be able to take decisions as quickly as we can and try to get to a maximalist position with young people’s education. That involves all of us—particularly those who are on the front line of education—adapting to accommodate that, but that is better than having a period when young people are out of school more than they need to be.