Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 12:26 pm on 8 July 2020.
Education Minister, I recognise these are difficult decisions for the Government, but the Government must balance the harms and benefits of any policy. And although I see you're trying to keep our children safe, and respect that, obviously, it is, ironically, having an adverse effect on our children and they are suffering, which I've seen first hand, having a 10-year-old son of primary age myself.
As I said earlier in the Chamber, it's not just our children's education that is suffering, it's their mental, physical health and development. I ask you to look at how low the risk is with COVID-19 now and balance that with the harmful effect that not going back to school full time is having on our children. And although we welcome the opportunity in these three weeks for our children to go back for three days, unless all children go back to school in September, I'll be interested in hearing how you expect parents to look after their children, educate their children, and hold down jobs if this part-time learning carries on.
Even though there is very little time now for our schools to prepare to reopen, the Scottish Government has made it fully clear that they want to reopen in August fully. In Wales, teachers, pupils and parents, as I said before, have been in the dark too long. We need to know. Please can you tell us, Minister, when we can expect all children to return to school full time?