THE Scottish Government could reduce the social distancing gap in schools to one metre for children if the coronavirus in Scotland is at a “low enough level”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

But the First Minister has warned that it isn’t possible to “just magically” change the current two-metre regulations.

Scotland’s schools are due to re-open on August 11, but the strict

restrictions on distancing mean it will be near impossible in most buildings for all children to return at the same time.

Many pupils will return to a mixture of classroom-based learning, and remote learning at home.

Sturgeon’s comments came as one of her own MSPs hit out at the government and Scotland’s councils for a lack of imagination in getting pupils back into the classroom.

Former health secretary Alex Neil said the plans to bring school-children back for blended lessons in August were “absolutely unacceptable” and he called on local authorities to use other buildings to extend the school estate.

His criticism came as Stephen McCabe, the children and young people spokesperson for Cosla, who co-chaired the Scottish Government’s Education Recovery Group, appeared before Holyrood’s Education Committee.

Neil said: “I’m a grandfather and my grandchildren have just been told they’re going to get, from August 11, one-and-half days a week in school for the indefinite future.

“I personally, and their parents, regard that as absolutely unacceptable – that is not good quality education. It’s not blending education, it’s bleeding education. Surely we can do far better than that for our children.”

McCabe made no bones about blended learning not being ideal.

He told MSPs: “What’s on offer is absolutely second best, because the reality is that the best for children is to return to full-time education in school without any requirements for social distancing.

“The reality is we are being advised by the Government and by the scientists at this point in time that children can only come to school in August on the basis of a two-metre social distance, therefore it’s impossible for us to provide full-time education with that constraint.”

Neil pointed to the NHS, who took on more staff and created the Louisa Jordan field hospital in Glasgow to prepare for possible emergency demand.

“Can we not apply a bit of imagination and create homework hubs, for example, with the IT equipment to make sure every child has access to what they need to do. This is not getting it right for most children.

“I think you’ve just taken the capacity constraints and decided to work to those and not actually try to overcome them,” he said.

McCabe said this was nonsense: “There are around 2500 schools in Scotland. To imagine that we could replicate 2500 schools is just fantasy.

“Money is not the only issue. If the Scottish Government offered councils a blank cheque and said ‘it doesn’t matter what it costs, go out there and double the school estate, get every child back to school full-time with face-to-face learning in August, based on two-metre social distancing’, we couldn’t do it.”

The First Minister was asked about the row during her daily coronavirus briefing. She said the government was looking at a number of options to try and “get to a different position where we are able to bring schools back with a different set of criteria that don’t involve the same degree of physical distancing.”

She said: “We can’t just magically move to that because it is dependent on making sure the virus is at a low enough level and we have thought what other protections might be required.

“That could be testing in schools, it could be certain aspects of enhanced hygiene in schools, it could be – as I believe Northern Ireland has just announced – physical distancing of two metres is not required for children but is still required for teachers and between teachers and children.”

She said education and the safety of children will be “at the heart” of any plan, but she does not know if the current guidance will be changed in time for pupils’ return.

Meanwhile, Larry Flanagan, the general secretary of the EIS teaching Union, used his speech at the trade union’s annual conference to bemoan Scotland’s schools being used as a political football. He told delegates: “It is disappointing that politics seems to have returned to normal – with binary arguments for and against the approach that government is taking on Covid-19 recovery.

“It is very disheartening for schools and teachers to be drawn into this political wrangle – the focus for everyone should be on supporting educational recovery, for the good of our young people.”