Covid in Scotland: John Swinney rubbishes claim about schools decision

Pupils in primary four to seven will return to classrooms, while secondary schools will resume part-time lessons.

The decision was announced by Nicola Sturgeon on March 2 at one of her weekly lockdown updates. It was also the day before she appeared before the inquiry investigating the handling of harassment complaints against Salmond.

Assistant secretary of the EIS teaching union Andrea Bradley claimed the decision was “politically motivated” as the Scottish Government needed a “good news story” amid the Salmond saga.

But Swinney has now stated there is "precisely no connection" between the announcement of a return to schools and the First Minister's evidence to the inquiry.

The Education Secretary told Good Morning Scotland: "The government previously indicated that we would provide an update on the return to schooling on that particular Tuesday, that is precisely what we did, and we addressed the concerns about the wellbeing of children and young people in driving the decisions that we arrived at."

Sturgeon had previously criticised the decision of the UK Government to allow all children in England back to school on March 8, claiming it would send cases "through the roof".

However, the Education Secretary rejected suggestions Holyrood’s plan amounted to the same approach, just delayed by a week.

READ MORE: John Swinney denies schools return was 'politically motivated'

"Pupils in England returned full time in all areas on March 8; what we're doing is we've taken a staggered approach to that over a longer period of time," he said.

"We're taking a measured approach, commensurate with the advice that we've got, which enables us to do two things.

"It enables us to address the wellbeing concerns that many people have about our young people who have suffered during the lockdown and the pandemic, and it also enables us to sustain the delivery of education for children and young people within Scotland."

With the return of schools increasing, Swinney said there would be outbreaks within schools, but cautioned this would be driven by the prevalence of the virus in the community.

He explained: "There will be examples where the virus will spread and the biggest threat to the ability to sustain education at a local level is community transmission of the virus, which is why we're putting such an emphasis on reducing community prevalence of the virus, and we've made enormous strides in that."

The Education Secretary added: "The evidence that we have is that schools are not significant transmitters of the virus, but obviously community transmission can lead to it reaching schools."

Swinney said the Government will continue to prioritise controlling the prevalence of the virus across the country, while mitigations such as regular testing, social distancing and face coverings should be used within school.