Gilruth ‘not against’ ordering research on impact of Covid lockdowns on schools

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has said she is “not against” commissioning research into the impact of the Covid pandemic on Scotland’s schoolchildren – as she raised concerns that poor levels of attendance are hindering efforts to close the attainment gap.

Speaking out about the problem of “persistent non-attendance” Ms Gilruth said frankly: “I  cannot close the attainment gap if we don’t have these young people in school.”

Her comments came after official figures showed the attendance rate in Scotland’s schools fell to 90.2%.

But the figures for the 2022-23 school year also showed that there was a persistent absence rate of 32% – meaning almost a third of all school pupils had an absence rate of 10% or more.

Ms Gilruth, speaking at a fringe event organised by the NASUWT teaching union at the SNP conference in Edinburgh, added she was “worried about the impact of lockdown on some young people” saying it could have led to a “view that they don’t necessarily need to be in school any more”.

With Mike Corbett, of the NASUWT, urging her to commission “some independent research about the impact of the pandemic on young people”, the Education Secretary told him: “I’m not against commissioning that research you have asked for.”

She added that she believed the impact of the pandemic on youngsters had not been quantified yet, saying  reports were “pretty anecdotal” and could “differ from school to school”.

Ms Gilruth added if data on the impact of the lockdowns, which saw most children forced to stay at home rather than go to school, was available, it “might help inform better policy-making”.

She added: “Persistent non-attendance has become a real issue post-pandemic with the increase in kids who are persistently not attending.”

As Education Secretary she said she was focused on the “ABCs” – which she said were attendance and attainment, as well as behaviour and the curriculum.

However, she stressed the impact that attendance has on attainment, saying: “How on earth are children who are not attending going to attain? They can’t.”

Mr Corbett said: “A lot of people seem to have forgotten we have gone through a global pandemic, which has had a massive impact on young people.

“There are issues with attendance, there are issues with behaviour, there are issues with mental health, there are additional support needs.”

He added that “many of these issues” were present previously but had been “exacerbated by the pandemic, no doubt it”.