Face coverings will not be made mandatory in Scottish schools, education secretary John Swinney said this afternoon.
Despite concerns that advice over face coverings in schools and elsewhere is inconsistent, Mr Swinney said the evidence did not show they should be mandatory for school staff or students.
He stressed, however, that the situation with face coverings in schools will be kept under review.
Also today, two more pupils have been confirmed to have Covid-19, although the government says all pupils in Scotland who have tested positive since schools started opening on 11 August appear to have been infected through community transmission, not in school.
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Speaking at the Scottish government’s daily coronavirus briefing this lunchtime, a day after the deadline for the full return of schools throughout Scotland, Mr Swinney said: “At my request, the Covid-19 sub-group on education and children’s issues has reviewed the advice on the use of face coverings in the light of the experience of school reopening in Scotland. It noted that although school-aged pupils in Scotland have tested positive since schools have reopened, there is no evidence that transmission has happened within the school.
“The sub-group also emphasised the need to recognise face coverings as one of a package of measures, and not a mitigation that should be applied in isolation.
“While face coverings are effective at reducing transmission of this virus, they also have some negative effects on communication and learning. These risks, therefore, need to be kept in balance.”
Mr Swinney added: “The group will continue to keep that evidence under review and provide further advice for the education recovery group to consider at the earliest possible opportunity.”
At today’s briefing, the first minister gave an update on pupils who had tested positive for Covid-19 in both secondary and primary schools, with “two new individual cases involving people at schools in Johnstone and Dundee”.
However, when asked about concerns over safety measures in primary schools, she stressed that “we are not seeing outbreaks in primary schools, we are seeing individual cases, or primary school-aged children, but the evidence is that they are getting the virus in the community”.
?We are promoting the wearing of face coverings in school. Everyone has been welcome to use one whenever they wish, but we are now actively encouraging them. We are especially encouraging our senior pupils and especially when they are moving around the school #responsibility pic.twitter.com/8rjEgD9PEy
- BannermanHigh School (@BannermanHigh) August 18, 2020
Yesterday, EIS union general secretary Larry Flanagan wrote to the first minister to call for “stronger advice on face coverings, where physical distancing is not possible”. He said: “You cannot visit a museum without one but again schools are different?”
Today, in response to such concerns, Mr Swinney also said: “The scientific advice has set out that distancing between pupils, and face coverings, are not required within the school setting, as long as population prevalence remains low and other mitigations are in place.
“As an additional precautionary measure the guidance asks secondary schools to take practical, proportionate steps to encourage distancing between young people, particularly in the senior phase, and those who wish to wear face coverings should be able to do so.
“These go beyond the requirements of the scientific advice and represent practical measures to minimise risk.”
