Here’s @NeilMackay’s big read from today’s @heraldscotland . As with pretty much everything Neil writes (he’s always top of my ‘to read’ pile), it’s well worth a read. Here’s a little thread from me with thoughts. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19034569.neil-mackays-big-read-inside-scotlands-education-wars-parents-teachers-government-daggers-drawn/?ref=twtrec

Firstly, I think Larry Flanagan’s comments about @NicolaSturgeon are reprehensible. You don’t have to like the person, you don’t have to like the party, but you really should respect the office. Or at least just be civil.

What Neil’s piece shows us is the two extreme sides of this ‘debate’ - the EIS and UsForThem. Neither informed by science. Neither interested in the pursuit of reason. Neither accurately representing those they claim to, in my experience.

Take UsForThem. Neil reports the EIS’s concern about UfT’s power with government. They needn’t be. UfT have no clout whatsoever in government. Their tone sees to that. Sadly, there really is no parent group carrying significant influence at the moment.

And where do we start with the EIS? While the rest of us have been all in it together, the EIS appears to have had different motivations. While doctors have quickly changed rotas and created shadow teams to ensure a full service, the EIS has demanded extra holidays.

While shop-workers have reconfigured stores to stay open safely,
the EIS has demanded schools are closed over and over again. While bus drivers have come face-to-face with thousands of adults every day, the EIS has threatened to go on strike.

And don’t presume Larry’s quotes accurately report the view of front line teachers. Not in my experience. I’ve not spoken to a single teacher who thinks this way. Maybe just Larry and the people around him who want his big-money job dialling up the rhetoric?

I’m really worried about the change in tone towards teachers because of the EIS. It’s very marked on the many school WhatsApp groups I’m on and the conversations I have. And it’s so unfair. Our teachers want kids in and think it’s safe. But they are tainted by the EIS. Scarring.

My only hope as a parent and citizen is that the government makes decisions based on science. I hope they ignore UfT and the EIS entirely - neither is a suitable actor. Instead, I hope they listen to paediatricians, mental health professionals, epidemiologists et al.

Who do we think understands these issues better? UfT? The EIS? Or, maybe, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Or the Children’s Commissioner. Just read what they have to say. It’s clear, concise, and rooted in *actual* science, not the voodoo type we hear elsewhere

If we listen to them, primary schools will be back soon. They could be in now. And as children who are less capable of independent learning, with parents who consequently can’t work from home when schooling them, that can be the difference between employment and unemployment.

And secondary schools will not be far behind. Masked if necessary - understandable at that age where transmission to teachers is more likely (which it isn’t in primaries). Rank-and-file parents would rather send a child to be educated in a mask than have them wither at home.

Shame on us if we allow those who shout the loudest from the fringes to determine whether or not our children are educated. It’s the single most important thing our country does. ENDS.