Quebec teachers, parents push for new back-to-school plan

Province expected to update strategy amid concern over class sizes

MONTREAL— For Politimi Karounis, August is usually spent buying new backpacks, pencils and notebooks for her two elementary school-aged children as they excitedly prepare to reunite with friends and teachers.

But this year, only weeks away from the first day of classes, Karounis said a sense of uncertainty prevails in her household around Quebec’s plan to reopen all schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is no perfect decision, but as a government, make a call, acknowledge peoples’ anxiety, acknowledge parents, and say: ‘Listen, we hear you, here’s what we’re going to do,’” Karounis, who lives in Montreal, said in a recent interview.

Karounis is among scores of parents across Quebec who are voicing concern over the government’s intention for all students from pre-school through Grade 9 to physically return to classrooms at the end of the month. She and other parents want schools to offer an option for remote learning, such as online courses. Others are asking for smaller class sizes, additional safeguards to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak, and more details about Quebec’s plan should an outbreak occur.

A petition asking the government to revise its plan had garnered more than 16,700 signatures by Saturday afternoon. Under Quebec’s back-toschool strategy, which was unveiled in June and is expected to be updated on Monday, students across the province will physically go back to school fulltime from pre-school to Grade 9.

The students will be divided into in-class bubbles of six, and each bubble will need to stay one metre apart from each other. Teachers will move between classrooms and maintain a twometre distance from students.

For students in Grades 10 and 11, the current plan offers them the choice to go back full-time, or attend classes in-person one day out of two. School boards will be responsible for creating contingency measures should a COVID-19 outbreak occur.

Education Minister JeanFrancois Roberge said Aug. 6 he was working with Quebec’s public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, and Health Minister Christian Dube to update the province’s plan. He is expected to hold a news conference Monday to reveal details.

Anxious parents and teachers say they expect Roberge to offer clear guidelines governing how schools will address COVID-19 outbreaks. They are also looking for the government to address the issue of mask-wearing inside school buildings.

Heidi Yetman, president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, which represents 8,000 teachers at Englishlanguage school boards in the province, said her members are anxious because they feel like they can’t adequately prepare for their students’ return.

“There’s this feeling in the air that we’re heading towards this big storm,” Yetman said. She said a major concern is the government’s plan to bring 100 per cent of students up to Grade 9 back at once.