Pupils in Scotland will begin returning to schools from Monday, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said, but the move would mean wider COVID-19 lockdown restrictions may have to stay in place longer.
Sturgeon announced that a phased return would go ahead as previously planned with some age groups allowed to return next week, and others dependent on the success of that move and data on overall infection rates.
"We are very deliberately choosing to use the very limited headroom we have right now to get at least some children back to school, because children's education and wellbeing is such an overriding priority," she told the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.
"But being able to get children back to education may mean the rest of us living with some other restrictions for longer, and that's a trade off we need to be willing to make."
The coronavirus pandemic has meant students have been at home since before Christmas.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Kate Holton and Giles Elgood)
