Education Secretary John Swinney has admitted that he is feeling "anxious" as the deadline for confirming if students will 100 percent return to school in August approaches this Thursday.
Guidance is also due to be published on how exactly Scotland proposes to safely re-open its schools in just under two weeks' time.
It comes as a supply teacher in the capital spoke to Edinburgh Live about how they were also feeling "extremely anxious" about schools returning full-time.
Speaking at a virtual meeting to the Education and Skills Committee, the Education Secretary admitted that he also has some concerns.
He said: “It is not a concession but rather I am happy to say that I have some anxiety about the reopening of schools because of the degree of change this represents in the arrangements that we have within our society.
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“We’ve been in a situation for four months of really limited contact between individuals and gatherings and the reopening of schools will be a significant step out of lockdown.
“So I readily acknowledge the importance of having good, clear advice that is available to school staff across the country and I’m confident that what the education recovery group has worked on, it will be able to deliver that.”
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