THE director of education for Scotland’s largest local authority has warned the attainment gap is likely to continue to widen until pupils are able to safely return to school full-time.
Maureen McKenna, who is in charge of education for Glasgow City Council, said though it would do everything it could to mitigate against inequality, the issue would persist due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Her concern was echoed by Lindsay Paterson, Edinburgh University’s professor of education policy, who said none of the Scottish Government proposals would address the problem of educational inequality.
Research shows that children from low-income households in Scotland continue to do worse at school than those from better-off households, an issue known as the attainment gap. It is expected to have widened while schools have been closed.
Earlier this month the Scottish Government said all pupils should return in the week starting August 11. East Renfrewshire has since confirmed that both nursery and P7 year groups will go back in June, with other local authorities still to confirm transition arrangements. Guidance says social distancing measures of two metres will be removed as soon as its safe to do so but can put no date on that.
In Glasgow, following meetings with parent council representatives last week, proposals emerged to divide primary pupils into two groups, with each attending school two days a week. A further day will be given over to teacher prep and school cleaning.
On the days that children do not attend school they will be provided with home learning. Though the local authority is investigating the possibility of providing some online classes, most of this time may not be supervised by a teacher.
McKenna told the Sunday National: “I’ve been concerned from the outset about the widening of the attainment gap because in this wild time, children aren’t getting an equitable experience.
“In Glasgow we put a huge amount of effort into closing that gap and we have a track record of huge success in the last ten years but its been hard fought. We’re not able to offer all [those extras] just now so the gap has to have widened.”
She said she recognised that many families – especially those who may have lost jobs or be struggling with poverty – did not have the capacity to support their children with school work.
Concerns have also been raised that children requiring additional hours in childcare hubs outwith two days of primary school will be disadvantaged. They will include the children of key workers and vulnerable families.
McKenna admitted that while they will be given space it will not be “a learning offer” and online access at the venue will not be guaranteed.
She insisted that in August teacher contact time would be a vast improvement, with work taught in school, and home learning tasks assigned off the back of the lessons. But she acknowledged ongoing issues.
“In normal times our children swim against the tide and this situation has just acerbated that,” she added. “As long as we are out of school fulltime that will be the case [that some children are disadvantaged in their learning]. You just can’t argue around that.
“What is a challenge that I am going to have excruciating difficulty with is the lack of direct time with a teacher. That is the gap that I can’t get over.”
Research has shown that many children have been doing far fewer hours of learning at home than they would at school. In an Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) survey of its members, over 60% of 26,000 respondents said there was a problem with pupils getting enough one-to-one attention and 54% said there was a problem with low pupil engagement.
Professor Paterson added: “Although some schools, and some individual teachers, are managing to keep in touch with children consistently, the evidence suggests that most children are not being monitored by teachers in anything like a full-time way”.
“Nothing has been done to ensure that the new partially online environment [in August] will be any more effective than the current fully online one. The problem may be reduced because it would apply to only half the week, but it will still be a problem.”
He said that “the most glaring absence” from Scottish Government guidance for schools published last week was the lack of educational advice to parents. “Throughout the lockdown, there has been hardly any advice to parents about how to motivate and supervise their children’s learning, nor on what to expect of them or how best to use limited teacher input to encourage study,” he added.
“This might ease a bit if children are in school for two days per week, but the fundamental problem remains. We send children to school to be taught by expert professionals.”
He claimed “an army” of volunteer online classroom assistants should be recruited so parents weren’t “cut adrift”.
A Scottish Government spokesman said:“We are providing local authorities and schools with flexibility to redirect resources aimed at closing the attainment gap to help mitigate the impacts of school closures on our most disadvantaged families.
“We are currently working with local authorities and the C19 Education Recovery Group to work out any additional staffing requirements needed to facilitate the re-opening of schools.”
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