As London-area families brace for a potential switch to virtual learning in the new year, critics are imploring the province to keep schools open for the sake of the students’ mental health, emotional and academic well-being.
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As London-area families brace for a potential switch to virtual learning in the new year, the NDP’s education critic is imploring the province to keep schools open for the sake of students’ mental health, and emotional and academic well-being.
On Friday, Premier Doug Ford spoke directly to parents at a news conference when he introduced new restrictions intended to cut people’s contacts by half in the face of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
“I know you’re concerned about your kids’ schools and what to expect after the new year,” Ford said. “I can tell you this: No decision has been made on what that looks like yet. We’re simply not in the position to say. The situation is evolving too quickly to know where we’ll be in early January. ”
By the end of the 2020-21 school year, students in Ontario had 26 disrupted weeks of learning, more than any other province, NDP education critic Marit Stiles said.
“We’re starting to see the impact of that. We are seeing skyrocketing cases of eating disorders, we’re seeing mental health and anxiety issues among young people and children, which I think we are only beginning to face, ”she said.
“We have a crisis and it impacts not just the kids but families and the economy. Let’s not pretend online learning was working for most kids. It was not. I think families are going to fall apart if schools close down again. ”
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In the London area, 10 schools were closed this week because of confirmed and probable cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant, including one of the region’s largest elementary schools, Sir Arthur Currie, that switched to online learning Friday.
Students and teachers who are considered close contacts of those who are infected are required to quarantine, whether or not they are vaccinated, causing major disruptions to classrooms.
Stiles is urging the government to take “urgent action, now.”
“If they are serious about what they say – that schools should be first to open, last to close – there are a lot of things they could be doing now,” she said.
First off, Stiles said, all education workers need access to rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 – currently provided only to students through schools – and students need to have the tests far past the five they have been given for the winter break.
“They (the government) really should be looking at giving them more when they get back so they can continue to test throughout the winter,” she said. “That will be crucial.”
Earlier this week London-area school kids and teachers were told to take home anything they might need for online learning when they leave for the Christmas break, and that has teacher union leader Craig Smith worried they’re headed back to home learning in January.
“It’s hugely disruptive. It would be better if everyone knew in advance that this was happening before the Christmas break, rather than wait until Dec. 20 or New Year’s Eve or even Jan. 2 at 6 pm, ”he has said.
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Stiles said the province also needs to “do a vaccination blitz for five to 11 years old,” who only recently became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
“I still believe they should be doing them in school, with permission from parents, and they need to be doing a much more robust outreach plan,” she said. “To encourage vaccination for those students between now and Jan. 3 is going to be critical. ”
So far, the provincial government, including chief medical officer of health Kieran Moore, has denied having any plans to pivot back to online learning.
“I, from the bottom my heart, think schools are safe and our children have missed a significant amount of schooling in-person and I want to see that maintained,” Moore said earlier this month. “And with the immunization of the five to 11s, we’ve done brilliantly in Ontario.”
Schools first switched to remote learning in April 2020 in response to a provincewide lockdown. In-class instruction started a week late in the fall of 2020, and went back to remote learning after both the winter and spring breaks, when stay-at-home orders were issued by the provincial government.