Ontario says school boards need to plan for three reopening scenarios: online only, in class or a mix of the two,
Choices are whether pupils will learn online, in class or a mix of both
Boards will spend the summer making three different plans for school reopening in the fall: classes as usual with safety precautions, online only or a mix of the two.
In an announcement Friday, Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce said decisions will be made by boards in August about what to do come September, taking into account the local COVID-19 situation.
That means schooling could look different depending on where you live in the province.
Ford said boards will be “empowered” to make decisions based on what works in their community, adding “we simply can’t provide a blanket solution for the province.”
Critics, however, accused the government of leaving the “heavy lifting” to boards.
But by working out the details for different plans, “we will be ready for any scenario,” Lecce said, adding that the hybrid option would see limits of 15 children grouped together in a “cohort” and attending school on alternate days or weeks.
Parents will have the option of keeping their kids at home to learn remotely.
Ontario’s two million students have been learning at home since schools shut down after the March break. By the time September hits, they will not have been inside a classroom for almost six months.
In high school, the province said boards could offer “shortened periods of in-person instruction in the morning with blended online and independent learning in the afternoons,” or something called a “block schedule” with one course taught over six or seven weeks plus an online course. It also says compulsory classes could be taught in person and electives online.
“We don’t want a one-sizefits-all,” Lecce said.
“We need to make sure that there is an element of variance to allow boards with low risk to move to the next phase and, likewise, if there is a risk to the province in the second wave, it allows us, of course, to scale back as well.”
He noted there are 72 school boards in the province and “what we’ve asked of them is to spend the coming weeks to build a plan for every scenario because, as you can appreciate, there’s so much variance. This is happening and changing so quickly. We need to be prepared.”
A recent report by experts at Sick Kids hospital said children should head back to class this fall, attending daily but with stringent handwashing routines that include a minimum of five “hand hygiene breaks” a day. They did not recommend masks, saying they are impractical and that improper use could lead to infection. The Sick Kids team also caused some controversy by recommending that physical distancing not be emphasized outdoors at recess because it is unenforceable and children need to play together.
“It’s reassuring to see that the reopening plan includes room for local and regional flexibility, as some schools or school boards may be able to return to full capacity sooner than others,” Cathy Abraham of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.
But critics panned the province’s announcement as “bare bones,” with NDP education critic Marit Stiles accusing the government of leaving “the heavy lifting to school boards.”
“It’s time for this government to go back to the drawing board and work with students, parents and educators to come up with a concrete plan and commit the funding to support it.”
Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said the province announced “a couple of bare-bones principles, which are insufficient to give students or educators certainty or comfort.”
Ontario teacher unions have called for students to have flexible schedules and take fewer courses, given they may need extra time to catch up, and suggested kids attend alternate days with Fridays set aside for thorough cleaning.
Laura Walton, who heads the school boards bargaining unit of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the province will have to spend money hiring caretakers and that it needs to set standards of cleanliness, which can vary between boards.
One board, she said, cleans schools on alternate days, “so they will need to double their custodians in order to clean every day, twice a day” as the province suggests. Boards “will definitely need more staff and definitely more cleaning products.”
She also wondered why the province waited until mid-June to announce that boards need to make a number of different plans.
“We could have been talking about scenarios on reopening for the last month,” she added.