UNION WARNS OF COVID CHAOS IN SCHOOLS

A teachers’ union is calling for a delay in reopening schools after the Christmas holiday because of the rapid spread of Omicron.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA) says there are already staffing issues and the problem is likely to get worse. 

However, the Scottish government has insisted there are currently no plans to close schools.

It comes as a number of colleges return to blended learning this week.

The move is aimed at protecting staff and students amid the rapid spread of the Covid-19 variant.

Colleges Scotland said several colleges were also planning hybrid teaching for the first two weeks of next year.

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the SSTA teaching union, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme he was already hearing about schools that were not fully staffed due to rising Covid cases.

And he said parents were keeping their children off to ensure they did not catch Covid in the run-up to Christmas.

Mr Searson said: “At the moment, schools are struggling to keep open because of the number of teachers who are away because of the virus.

“We need to be reasonable and say that the virus will spread inside schools.

“There somehow seems to be a notion that the virus isn’t spread in school and teachers are immune.”

The latest official figures published last week showed there were 31,303 pupils off school for any Covid reason.