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| High school pupils in Scotland to wear face coverings from 31 August | High school pupils in Scotland to wear face coverings from 31 August |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Scottish secondary school pupils will have to wear face coverings in corridors, communal areas and school buses from next Monday. | |
| Education Secretary John Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland the new guidance would apply to all pupils aged over 12. | Education Secretary John Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland the new guidance would apply to all pupils aged over 12. |
| He said the guidance would be updated based on new advice from the World Health Organization (WHO). | He said the guidance would be updated based on new advice from the World Health Organization (WHO). |
| There will no requirement to wear face coverings in classrooms where social distancing measures are in place. | |
| Mr Swinney said individual exemptions could be granted for health reasons, but the guidance would be obligatory for all secondary, special and grant-aided schools. | |
| He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "From August 31st young people over the age of 12 in secondary schools should habitually wearing face coverings when they are moving around schools and corridors and in communal areas where it is difficult to deliver the physical distancing, which is an inherent part of the guidance the education recovery group has put in place." | |
| He said the Scottish government had acted in the light of the new WHO advice based on evidence that teenagers can infect others in the same way as adults, but had decided to go further by extending it to school transport. | |
| "It's part of the general measures we are taking to ensure we keep pace with the emerging advice about how to keep our schools open and to keep our schools safe." | |
| Young people returned to Scotland's schools earlier in August with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils, and no rules around face coverings. | |
| But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon signalled on Monday that a change in the guidance was imminent, saying the government was in the "final stages" of consulting with councils and teachers. |