A half-baked cop-out over back-to-school
Minister tosses decisions to local boards
From the minute Ontario ordered its schools closed back in March, it was apparent that reopening them would be one of the most difficult but necessary decisions provincial politicians would have to make. That is, until they found a way to get themselves off the hook.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce should have told school boards that he expects schools to be open full-time starting in September, unless there is a strong local case to be made for blending part- time schooling with online learning. Instead, the minister said last week that either of those choices could work, and even threw in the possibility of completely online schooling. He said he would leave it to each school board to decide what’s best for their region.
It’s a cop- out that leaves parents, teachers and school boards scrambling to figure out what to do.
As a result of Lecce’s indecision, the vital choice about school reopening will not be made by the elected provincial politicians who have been running the pandemic show, nor by elected trustees. The school opening decisions will be made by school administrators, because the matter is considered operational.
School bureaucrats might be very capable in their regular jobs, but this is a decision far beyond their usual powers. What bureaucrat is going to undertake the perceived risk of reopening schools full-time when the education minister won’t?
The minister’s non- decision was made despite an excellent report last week from doctors at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, who recommended reopening schools with safety precautions. The Sickkids experts grasp the heart of the issue in a way that the government does not. Their report states, “It is critical that we balance the risks of COVID-19 in children, which appear to be minimal, with the harms of school closure which is impacting their physical and mental health. It should be recognized that it will not be possible to remove all risk of infection and disease.”
The Sickkids’ report gave the government both good advice and political cover. Not a day goes by when the Doug Ford government doesn’t remind Ontarians that it acts on medical advice. Sickkids doctors gave the government that advice in regard to schools, but it’s choosing not to follow it.
The closest Lecce got to a decision was saying that he’d lean toward the idea of students attending schools on alternate days, or even alternate weeks, with online instruction making up the rest. It’s the most disruptive and complex of the three choices.
This half- baked compromise would create a world where kids are in school some days, but not others, making child care a nightmare. School bus schedules, already complex, would vary constantly and the risk of not picking a child up, or dropping her off at the wrong place, would go up.
The worst part of it is the online learning. The province’s emergency online experience over the last few months has not been encouraging. It’s not what elementary students need and most teachers have neither the training nor the curriculum plan to make it work. It is second- rate education, at best, and one that relies too much on parental assistance.
There is a reason why we have schools and professional teachers. Parents can play an invaluable role in their children’s learning, but being a main instructor isn’t something most are remotely equipped, or even have time, to do. The problem is even larger for those who have children in French immersion but don’t speak the language themselves.
Schools are already facing big challenges this fall. Cleaning has to be maintained at a high level. A wide range of other pandemic health precautions will be necessary. Many students will be far behind and require major remedial instruction. Now, the province has tossed a new math curriculum into the mix. The goal of making math a tool for everyday life is sound, but the timing is not ideal.
All these challenges will have to be tackled whether students are attending part- time or full- time. Let’s get the maximum value for the effort by reopening schools in a manner as close to normal as possible.
The experience of Quebec might be instructive. That province reopened its schools in May. The experience has given parents and administrators enough encouragement for the province to order a return to full- time classes in the fall. Despite some predictions of a school- related disease spike, the education department says only 53 students and teachers were diagnosed with COVID-19 and the vast majority of the infections occurred outside the classroom.
Ontario politicians need to ask themselves if their non- decision is based on real, quantifiable risk to children or if it’s because they’re afraid they will be blamed if something goes wrong.
parents, teachers and school boards scrambling.