Let’s ramp up virtual school
Ontario schools have been closed since March 23 and will stay shut well into May, if not longer. The entire province is under a state of emergency until May12 and even that, we’re told, may get extended.
At this point, plenty of students (and their depressed parents) are assuming they won’t be returning to classrooms at all this term.
But on Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford suggested the government isn’t ready to concede the school year, which is scheduled to run until June 25.
It would be great if students could get back to classes in school buildings, face-to-face with their classmates and teachers, even if everyone has to stay two metres apart.
But, whether that happens this school year or not, more attention needs to be put on the education that students are receiving now. Or, more to the point, not receiving.
The Toronto District School Board has already told graduating students they’ll receive their final marks next week for the purposes of college and university applications. And all students have been told their grades won’t drop from what they were prior to March break. That’s fair given these unprecedented times.
But that shouldn’t mean students aren’t given the opportunity to learn more of the curriculum so their next school year won’t be such a shock.
Ontario, like other jurisdictions all around the world, was forced to move very quickly to put in place a home-schooling plan. It was always going to be a rocky transition, especially with the need to ensure the existing inequities in the school system aren’t made even worse through virtual learning.
Ontario began with a “learn at home” online portal that was voluntary and not meant to replace school. Then it moved to the plan that’s in place now, “teacherled learning” of the curriculum primarily provided through a range of online means.
Given the uncertainty around how much longer this may continue, it’s time for teachers, school boards and the education ministry to ramp up this phase. It’s too limited in ambition for the long haul.
Providing just five hours a week for students in kindergarten to Grade 6, and 10 hours for those in Grades 7 and 8, is not enough to cover the curriculum that used to take a full week of school to provide. At this rate, the gaps in learning will be enormous at the start of the next term and even more educational time will be lost making up for that before starting on new content.
High school students are supposed to be getting1.5 hours per course per week (three hours for semestered students), which is well below normal. Some schools say they aren’t managing to provide even that much.
The education ministry and school boards have now had more than a month to provide training for teachers in how to educate students at a distance and get laptops, tablets and internet access to students who don’t normally have access at home.
Certainly teachers and school administrators must take care to ensure that students who need extra help — whether that’s with technology or more traditional educational supports — aren’t left behind. But they also can’t let the challenges of doing that become an excuse to provide so little schooling that all students are left behind.
It’s understandable if teachers are reluctant to fully embrace e-learning, given that the Ford government tried to foist four mandatory courses on high school students in its bid to reduce teacher positions. But parents and students have already successfully pushed back on that and made it clear that they want a teacher at the head of the class in normal times. These are not normal times.
COVID-19 has forced governments and businesses of all kinds to deliver what matters in new, albeit less than ideal, ways. Ontario’s students deserve no less.
Ontario was forced to put a home-schooling plan in place. It was always going to be a rocky transition