Schools set to remain closed until after summer holidays

Schools are expected to remain closed until after the summer break to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak, according to the education secretary.

John Swinney was speaking live on the STV News at Six on Monday evening.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon later said no definitive decision had yet been made about when to reopen schools.

Swinney said they would remain closed for the foreseeable future, which is expected to be until at least the summer break is over.

He said: “I understand the parental anxiety about this question but the schools have been closed and they will be closed for the foreseeable future.

“We will set out as a government later on this week some of the issues that have got to be carefully considered in any judgement about relaxing any of the current restraints and constraints that are in place.

“But it’s important that it’s clearly understood and when we set out the closure of schools back in March, we said it was unlikely that young people would be back in schools before the summer break.

“That remains my expectation and we’ll look carefully at all of the medical, clinical and scientific information to come to any judgements that would be a change on any of those arrangements that we’ve set out before.”