Over a third of Scottish secondary teachers do not feel safe in school and lack confidence in the protections that have been put in place, a survey of over 2,000 teachers has found.
The survey, conducted by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) after staff and pupils returned to school full-time last month, found that only 7 per cent of teachers are “very confident” they can keep safe, with 38 per cent not confident at all.
Only 12 per cent of members describe their school as “very prepared” when it comes to the precautions being taken to curb the spread of the virus, including things like social distancing, hand hygiene and enhanced cleaning.
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One teacher accused the Scottish government of throwing school staff “under the bus” and said that teachers now expect to get coronavirus.
The teacher said: “More and more this week I have been hearing ‘when not if’. Teachers now expect to get sick. We expect to contract Covid and to potentially spread it among our communities and loved ones. How on Earth are we expected, under these very real circumstances, to feel safe?”
The union described the lack of physical distancing in schools being reported by members as “a major worry”, with 33 per cent saying that physical distancing measures had not been put in place.
Only 2 per cent said that the number of pupils in their class had been reduced, with one teacher pointing out that pupils were often closer together in classrooms than corridors - where, as of this week, face masks are to be used - because they have to be two metres away from the teacher.
The teacher said: “It is concerning to hear the government talk of no need for pupils to wear masks in class because they can distance more easily. In reality, the pupils are closer together, so they can be further from staff. I fear for the health of the pupils I teach as well as my own.”
The survey also found that cleaning procedures were “inconsistent” - only half of teachers (47 per cent) reported that their classrooms were being cleaned after every lesson, with some respondents highlighting that their councils were running out of cleaning supplies.
One said: “There is talk of staff having to use water-based spray on pupils’ desks in between each lesson instead of the alcohol wipes currently being used.”
Another commented: “We have already been told to reduce the cleaning to just at the start of periods to reduce the number of wipes used.”
Only 21 per cent of respondents said their schools had introduced a detailed pupil discipline policy that included actions for pupils who refuse to adhere to physical distancing and safety measures such as hand hygiene.
The education secretary John Swinney has rejected the idea that pupils should be sent home if they fail to wear a face covering.
At the government’s daily coronavirus briefing yesterday, he said: “I don’t agree with the SSTA that young people should be excluded from school if they’re not wearing face coverings, but I do think schools need to build up the cultural understanding and awareness of the importance of wearing face coverings as something that is done to protect all of the school population - staff and pupils alike.”
SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said: “It appears that schools are being exempt from all the normal Covid-19 safety arrangements, such as physical distancing, consistent and safe cleaning regimes, and restrictions on sharing equipment that take place in other public places. As one member remarked, ‘Teachers are just been thrown under the bus.’ Either we are serious about keeping people safe or we are not.”
When opting for the full-time return of pupils to school, the Scottish government said that there would be mitigations put in place to help prevent the spread of coronavirus including extra handwashing and hand sanitising, social distancing between staff, and enhanced cleaning regimes. It also said it was funding around 1,400 extra teachers.
As of this week, secondary pupils are also expected to wear face masks in corridors and communal areas. The move was welcomed by teaching unions. However, Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, continues to push for reductions to class sizes.
Since Scottish schools returned last month there have been a number of staff and pupils who have tested positive for coronavirus, and the government has highlighted the pressure being put on the country’s testing capacity now that children are starting to catch colds.
The biggest outbreak in a school to date has taken place in a special school, Kingspark School in Dundee. First minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday that there were 36 Covid-19 cases related to the school, including 22 staff members, 11 contacts and three pupils.
The Scottish government has repeatedly at pains to stress that, as Ms Sturgeon put it on 20 August, that “the bulk of the evidence so far shows that the transmission is not within the schools [although] community transmission is causing issues for schools”.
