(Press release issued 19 January 2022)
Parent-teacher campaign group Stand By Me Scotland is demanding an immediate end to the Scottish Government’s requirement for children as young as 11 to wear a face mask all day in school.
The call comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that children in English secondary schools will no longer be asked to wear a mask from tomorrow.
The group of over 2000 parents, grandparents and school staff are concerned about the educational and psychological impact of prolonged mask-wearing in school, especially on children with hearing impairments and those with additional support needs.
The Scottish Government first mandated masks for senior phase pupils and their teachers in secondary school classrooms in October 2020 for areas in Levels 3 and 4 of Covid restrictions, in what was billed as a temporary measure. Instead, they still remain in place 15 months later, and now apply to all secondary pupils from as young as age 11.
Stand By Me Scotland co-organiser Ruth Harley, who is also a teacher, said:
“It’s great news for English children that they will no longer have to wear masks in class, but yet again it feels like Scottish children have been forgotten about. Our senior pupils have been wearing them all day in school for 15 months now. The Scottish Government has continually moved the goalposts on when this measure, which was only supposed to be in place for the first 6 weeks of the autumn term, will be removed. This cannot continue.
“Stand By Me Scotland fundamentally disagrees with children being subjected to stricter restrictions than the rest of society. You can now go clubbing without a mask, eat a meal in a restaurant without a mask, debate in the Scottish Parliament without a mask - yet our children as young as 11 are expected to wear them for 6-7 hours a day in school. That just isn’t right.
“Study after study shows that Covid is a mild illness for the vast majority of children, and with teachers now protected by the vaccine, we cannot think of any justification for maintaining mask mandates a moment longer. Indeed, in its meeting on 5 October 2021, the Scottish Government’s own Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues recommended that the requirement for masks in classrooms should be removed as a matter of priority.
“We call on Nicola Sturgeon to wear a face mask continually for 7 hours a day, every working day, until she removes masks from our children.”
