Greens call for faster action on CO2 monitoring in schools
Councils must move faster to ensure classrooms are covid safe, Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer MSP has said.
In a letter sent to the Scottish Parliament’s education committee today, [1] The Education Secretary confirmed that only eight out of 32 councils have CO2 monitoring in every classroom, and that 25% of additional support needs schools have yet to be assessed for covid mitigation measures. In some local authorities fewer than half of schools and nurseries had been assessed as of this past Wednesday.
Commenting, Ross Greer said:
“Covid mitigations should have been in place months ago, ready for pupils and staff returning to class in August. An incredible 40,000 under 15s tested positive in the few weeks after the summer holidays, that’s as many as tested positive in that age group across all of the previous sixteen months. This was clearly an avoidable situation, but what I’m seriously concerned by is the absence of appropriate mitigation measures in many schools, especially special schools where social distancing is unavoidably harder to observe.
"The figures for East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Highland are particularly poor, even after accounting for the supply issues they have faced. Council leaders need to apply the level of urgency now which should have been applied over the summer, ensuring that effective measures are put in place to protect staff and young people in our schools.”