Nicola Sturgeon has come under pressure over reports her government is planning to “chop up” classroom doors to boost ventilation and protect against Covid-19.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross challenged the First Minister following Liberal Democrat claims that Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville wants to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on the move.
He also cited a retired firefighter who said chopping the bottom off doors would increase the risk of a fire spreading.
It comes after ministers announced that funding of up to £5 million would be available to help schools and early learning centres (ELCs) improve ventilation.
Responding to Mr Ross during First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon defended government policy and said work to support natural airflow could include “basic rectification of the structure of classrooms”.
READ MORE: Education Secretary 'wants to chop up class doors'
She told MSPs: “Our schools are fit for use. Thanks to the dedication of teachers and other school staff, thanks to the sacrifices of young people and their parents, we’ve managed to keep our schools open during some of the most challenging phases of this pandemic, and that’s a credit to everybody in our education system.
“The Scottish Government continues to take a range of measures to ensure that children and staff working in schools are as safe as it is possible for them to be.”
Ms Sturgeon added: “When you’re trying to improve ventilation in a room, there’s a number of things you need to do. Partly that can be about air filtration to purify the air. Partly that is about ventilation, so mechanical ventilation systems… but, partly, it’s about taking measures to ensure that the natural flow of air in a room is maximised.
“So if you have doors or windows that are not enabling that natural flow of air in the way you would want it to, then it strikes me as basic common sense that you would take measures to rectify that. And so what we’ve done is give additional money to local authorities to allow them to take whatever steps – air filtration systems, mechanical ventilation or basic rectification of the structure of classrooms - to improve the natural flow of air. That strikes me as basic common sense.”
READ MORE: Parents demand 'humane and responsive' system
Mr Ross welcomed plans to install air filters in classrooms but highlighted criticisms that ministers have been too slow to tackle the problem of school ventilation.
He said: “The Scottish Government has had two years to make schools fit for use since the pandemic began, yet now we discover one of their ideas to protect kids and teachers from Covid is the bonkers idea to chop the bottom off doors.
“It would be laughable if it wasn’t such a serious issue. Indeed, there is a fire-safety point here. A retired firefighter has warned that the doors in a school are essential for holding back heat and smoke should a fire start. In light of this did the Scottish Government consult the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service about these plans?
“Bringing in air filters for classrooms is a much more sensible suggestion that every party supports - but the SNP need to get them distributed quickly.
“They have been far too slow to act on ventilation but we’ve seen throughout the pandemic that schools have fallen down the priority list for this government.
“The First Minister must guarantee that all of the serious ventilation measures - not chopping the ends off classroom doors - will be in place by the time that schools go back after the February holiday.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel