Scotland’s education secretary, John Swinney, has been “bombarded with emails” saying the move to wearing face coverings at all times in school buildings for secondary students and teachers “is a terrible thing to do and we shouldn’t have it”.
Mr Swinney made the revelation yesterday evening at a hustings organised by the EIS teaching union, during which he came under fire from members who felt he had failed to adequately protect school staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
Nicola Fisher, a former EIS president and a Glasgow-based primary teacher, hit out at the current “lack of strong mitigation [against Covid] in schools” - from no physical distancing, to the refusal to prioritise staff for vaccination - and asked what extra mitigations Mr Swinney will fight for on behalf of teachers, school staff and children.
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In response, Mr Swinney said the government had acted with caution throughout the pandemic and had prioritised public health, including the health of teachers.
He said an incremental approach had been taken to the return to school - comparing that to the mass return of pupils to school in England in March - and added: “In response to the point Nicola made about aerosol transmission, that’s why pupils are wearing face coverings in secondary schools.
Scottish election 2021: Concerns over Covid safety measures in schools
“Now, I have been bombarded with emails telling me this is a terrible thing to do and we shouldn’t have it, but the epidemiological advice I have indicates that’s the right thing to do and that’s why it’s happening, because I’m erring on the side of caution, and the [side of the] safety of staff and the safety of pupils.
“Believe you me, if I’ve had one email telling me to authorise the removal of face coverings from secondary school pupils, I’ve had thousands, but it fits with the professional advice I’ve followed.”
Mr Swinney - along with the Conservatives’ Jamie Greene, Labour’s Michael Marra, the Greens’ Ross Greer and the Lib Dems’ Jenny Marr - spent over two hours answering questions posed by teachers on a range of topics from the new entrants to teaching unable to find secure work, to the action they would take to encourage more people from BAME (black, Asian and/or minority ethnic) backgrounds to enter teaching, and to supporting those in the job already to climb the career ladder.
Mr Swinney told the new teachers struggling to find work - one of whom had been looking for a permanent job since 2019 - that he was willing to commit to a “full review of teacher recruitment”.
He said that the SNP had committed to investing £1 billion in the Scottish Attainment Challenge over the next five years if re-elected - and there was “frankly no good reason why permanent contracts have not been released”.
Earlier, he said there was “no decent, defensible reason” why teachers were being employed on temporary contracts by councils.
However, the Conservatives’ Mr Greene hit out at Mr Swinney for failing to take responsibility for teacher recruitment and pointing the finger at councils, saying: “If you don’t know what the problem is, what hope do we have of fixing it?”
Mr Marra - who is currently a Labour councillor in Dundee but is running to become an MSP for North East Scotland - said the government was giving with one hand but taking away with the other. There was money for the attainment challenge, but council budgets were being cut “year on year”, he said.
Mr Swinney strongly disputed this accusation, while Mr Greer said councils would be half a billion pounds worse off over the past five years if it had not been for the Greens’ budget negotiations.
Ultimately, among those watching the hustings, there was as much focus on the questions that were not being asked as the ones that were.
Those taking part in the simultaneous hustings live chat repeatedly expressed their frustration and anger that the strike action taking place in further education colleges - over lecturer posts being replaced with lower qualified and more poorly paid roles - was not raised until well over an hour into the event.
One participant said: “90 mins on education so far and not a mention of FE. Really poor,” while another questioned if teachers “realise what is happening in FE”
However, it was pointed out that the further education branch of the union, EIS-FELA, was going to have its own hustings dedicated to issues in the college sector.
When the industrial action in the college sector was raised, all panel members were asked if they supported the strike - and asked to answer with a simple “yes” or “no”.
Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens said they supported striking college staff, but Mr Greene said that, while he sympathised, he was against strike action and Mr Swinney said he wanted to see the dispute resolved through negotiation.
Mr Marra called on Mr Swinney to “pick up the phone to Colleges Scotland tonight and sort this out”.
Earlier, in response to the question “Do you agree someone in a further education college who prepares, delivers and assesses learning should be a lecturer?”. Mr Swinney said he supported a “diversity of role” in colleges but not “diminishing the role of lecturers”
He added that lecturer numbers were rising.
However, Mr Greene said that colleges were making cuts because they were not being properly funded by government, and that 12 colleges were forecast to go into deficit.
Mr Greer, meanwhile, said that lecturer numbers were not rising - it was just that more were being registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), but they were the same people who had been working in the sector for years.
Mr Greer said college management had lost the trust of the workforce and - as with teachers - negotiations over pay and conditions should become tripartite, with the government taking “a much more active role” in negotiations.
