Nicola Sturgeon addressed the possibility of school closures as she urged caution amid a ‘tsunami’ of Omicron infections.
The First Minister held a virtual briefing in Edinburgh on Friday where she emphasised her determination to avoid whole school closures.
Pupils in Scotland have already faced two significant bouts of school closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, including after the Christmas holidays last year.
And some schools were forced to close in the last week due to suspected Omicron outbreaks.
While Ms Sturgeon hopes to avoid having to shut them again, she could not rule out the possibility of individual classes or schools being disrupted.
She said: “I can’t stand here and say that no class will be disrupted and that no school may have periods of disruption.
“What I’m talking about here is what we had before – the blanket ‘schools are closed’.
“Nobody wants that. I will bust a gut and do whatever – even if people hate me for asking adults to do more than they want to do – to keep schools open in that general sense.
“Of course if there are outbreaks of infection in school then there needs to be a response to that.
“I’m very clear about minimising the disruption to children’s education.”
The picture across Tayside and Fife, however, currently looks positive for schools as the number of pupils testing positive remains low in comparison to previous months.
And local authorities in the four regions have said they are not currently considering school closures and will be following government guidance.
Current measures to curb the spread of the virus in schools include secondary school pupils and all school staff wearing face coverings.
Caution has been advised over the new Omicron variant, however, as Ms Sturgeon warned, it is likely to replace Delta as the dominant form of coronavirus.
Currently the government has instructed all household contacts of a positive case to isolate and further measures are to be considered in the coming days.
Covid-19 absences in schools: Latest figures as Omicron impact continues to be monitored
