Parent not impressed with Ontario’s Learn at Home program

Online education portal provides few courses for students in grades 5 to 8

There is value in some of what’s available in the province’s online learning portal for younger kids, but the content geared to older elementary students is “complete garbage,” says a Fort Erie mother of two.

Sonia Cote’s daughters, in grades 5 and 8 at Stevensville Public School, spent Monday working on math and completing a project on earthquakes — but it wasn’t through the program launched by the government last week.

They used Khan Academy, which offers free online courses from kindergarten to post-secondary levels.

Cote is hopeful the Ministry of Education will roll out a second phase of its plan that includes more detailed content — especially for Grade 5 and up.

“I get that it was made to be fairly interim,” she said about the initial options available on the Learn at Home website.

More is expected to be added to the website as schools will be closed for longer than the next two weeks, which was announced by the government Monday.

The majority of what’s in the plan consists of programming from TVO, a provincially-funded educational TV network.

Cote said the portal is appropriate for younger elementary kids.

“There’s almost nothing for Grade 7 and Grade 8 students at all,” she said.

“It doesn’t provide anything that’s better than sitting down in front of the TV all day.”

Cote said Google Classroom is a useful tool and hopes as students are out of school for much longer than expected, teachers will be involved in some kind of daily interaction. A recorded message, a 30-minute talk on what students should be working on at home are two of Cote’s suggestions.

She also hopes the next phase of the government’s plan is “more specialized and targeted” toward specific grades.

The portal features curriculum for each grade, laid out in several hundred pages.

Shannon Muileboom’s son is in Grade 4 at Kate S. Durdan Public School.

“There’s not a lot to choose from,” said the Niagara Falls mother, who said access to cable TV and internet could be an issue for many parents.

She wants school boards to form specific lessons delivered to parents.

“I hope they (the government) talk to the teachers and the teachers help put packages together,” she said.

Ontario’s program is described by the province as a source of supplementary resources for elementary and secondary students to practise math and literacy skills at home.

“While these materials do not replace what students have been learning at school, during this unusual time, these athome activities offer quick and easy access to some of Ontario’s best online kindergarten to Grade 12 learning resources,” said the Learn at Home website.

District School Board of Niagara communications manager Kim Yielding said inquiries about at-home schooling started to come in from parents at the start of the March break — especially after the province then said schools would be closed an extra two weeks.

Parents were directed to keep an eye out for the Learn at Home website that was being put together at the time.

“We knew the ministry was working on this website and we were able to let parents know it was coming,” she said.

Yielding said parents seem to be pleased there is “something in place” for now and are eager to see what the next wave of the program will offer.

It’s unknown when and if schools will reopen this academic year, but Yielding said online learning will be a focus of DSBN in coming weeks to ensure students don’t fall behind.

All graduating students, headed into and out of high school, have been guaranteed by the ministry that the year will not be lost, she said.

A spokesperson for Niagara Catholic District School Board was not available for comment.

“There’s almost nothing for Grade 7 and Grade 8 students at all.” SONIA COTE MOTHER