Edinburgh schools: Here’s how to get our kids back in classrooms – Ian Murray

If we were able to build new hospitals in a matter of weeks, we should be able to create new classrooms to help children return to school safely amid the coronavirus pandemic, writes Ian Murray MP.
Children have already missed out on three months of classroom education (Picture: John Devlin)Children have already missed out on three months of classroom education (Picture: John Devlin)
Children have already missed out on three months of classroom education (Picture: John Devlin)

Shortly after the General Election in 2015, Nicola Sturgeon said she should be judged on her education record.

At this point, her SNP Government had already been in sole charge of Scottish education for eight years.

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Two years later she repeated the claim that education was her “top priority”.

Ian Murray is the Labour MP for Edinburgh South (Picture: Ian Rutherford)Ian Murray is the Labour MP for Edinburgh South (Picture: Ian Rutherford)
Ian Murray is the Labour MP for Edinburgh South (Picture: Ian Rutherford)

Well we are nearly 14 years into this SNP Government and education couldn’t be any further from the Nationalists’ “top priority”.

There are now more than 3,000 fewer teachers and the attainment gap between the most and least deprived children has continued to widen.

The once world-beating Scottish education system has plummeted down the international rankings. At least in the rankings the Education Secretary still agrees to take part in, that is. This is an Education Secretary whose response to a bad report card is to put it in the bin before he gets home rather than try to get better.

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The coronavirus crisis has brought all these chickens home to roost, and the latest chaos overseen by the SNP administration has rightly infuriated parents.

The Scottish Government must give education the same priority as health and the economy post-Covid. We can’t afford for educational inequality to grow and for young people to be missing out on vital classroom teaching.

But the priority doesn’t seem to be there. How can the Scottish Government demand councils implement a policy of 50 per cent classroom teaching time alongside two-metre social distancing in existing facilities?

I’m not a mathematician but I know it comes down to a matter of physical space and number of teachers. That is why Edinburgh Council has only been able to put forward plans for one-to-two days per week of physical teaching time.

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The First Minister has called this “blended learning”, but many parents and teachers see the correct phrase as being “less teaching”. It simply won’t work for the youngest children.

Ms Sturgeon has been all over the shop – yesterday she was calling this model a “contingency” just days after her Education Secretary said it was “unlikely” schools would return to normality before the end of the coming term.

When Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney don’t even know what’s happening, how on earth can parents?

As always with the SNP, it’s somebody else’s fault.

The First Minister has responded to parents’ concerns by saying Edinburgh Council must do better. It is clear to me that it is not the city council which needs to do better, but those at the top of government who claim education is their top priority.

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With political will we were able to set up new hospitals in a matter of days and weeks – using the British Army and the NHS. We now have to do that for education.

It will require creative solutions. Let’s get every available community space (many churches and other space providers have already offered), entice retired and former teachers to temporarily return, and bring in all supply and seasonal teachers.

Let’s utilise and obtain all the latest technology and put every effort in to getting all pupils back into the classroom.

We have to try to do that to make sure young people don’t miss out any more than on the three months they’ve already missed.

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Otherwise inequality will rise and children will be left behind.

Ian Murray is the Labour MP for Edinburgh South

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