Highland schoolkids getting far too much time to roam the streets
Older schoolchildren in Inverness and the rest of the Highlands are currently in a period of "study leave" in which they can choose to go into school for an hour or two now and again if they wish, or stay away for the duration. It's entirely up to them.
This lasts for more than four weeks and in some cases almost five weeks. The purpose of it has been to allow them to study at home for exams. So if you've seen groups of youngsters cavorting around the city centre and wondered why they aren't at school you'll know the answer. They're on "study leave".
This was brought to my attention by parents whose 15-year-old is sitting senior exams for the first time at an Inverness school. Teenagers like her will have no complaints. Why should they? They don't have to get up at the usual time and go to school.
And they've never known a world in which months of tuition at school weren't lost because of Covid, where weeks more weren't lost because of strikes by teachers and other unions, and when school "in service" days - a recent one closing schools for more than half the week - peppered the calendar, and when there was certainly no five-week "study leave".
During Covid I know teachers made determined efforts through online communication to remain in contact with pupils to at least try to mitigate the effects of loss of classroom education.
The strikes over pay were regrettable but given how difficult life is for teachers these days in some schools riddled with indiscipline and social media distractions, maybe they were entitled to demand more money for doing their best to cope with it all. Many parents supported them in their stance.
But an extended period of "study leave"? Parents I know are emphatic in the view that their kids have already missed far too much school time in their educational years and the last thing they need is yet more weeks away from it just before the summer holidays.
However a few years ago a petition was raised by pupils at one Inverness school opposing plans to reduce study leave before exams, and it had at least some parental support. The youngsters involved presented a strong argument that a calm and undisturbed home environment is the best place to do essential preparation for exams.
Teachers have been fully at work and are there to assist pupils who decide to go into school if they think it will benefit them. Hopefully many youngsters, guided by their parents, will have made responsible decisions on this.
But how many others are treating it as just another long holiday?
It's yet another reminder for parents of the extraordinary amount of time their children have been out of school in the past five years.
From the first year in primary school to my sixth and last year at Inverness Royal Academy I didn't miss a school day for anything - for strikes, or in-service days, and certainly not for "study leave". We were told to study for exams in the school library. There was no freedom to roam around town as we pleased before exams back then. It's certainly not difficult to understand parental discontent about children having weeks on end where there is no compulsion to attend school not long before the start of the summer holidays.
This policy extends across Scotland. Given the overall amount of school time many youngsters have missed and are missing it raises the stark question: do we want children being educated in school classrooms these days or not?
