Article by Francesco Veronesi — Video and Translation: CNMNG Staff
The controversy about schools in Ontario does not go out. Twenty-four hours after the provincial government’s decision to continue with distance learning – until the end of this school year – it has set the political climate on fire, provoking accusations and poisons during the last parliamentary session in Queen’s Park before the summer break. But not only.
The trade unions and numerous experts, along with associations in the health sector, have hurled themselves against the decision of Doug Ford and the Minister of Education Stephen Lecce. In short, the decision to go ahead with the schools closed until September is not liked. Also because, as the leader of the NDP Andrea Horwath rightly pointed out, at this moment Ontario is the only Canadian province with schools still closed and, at the same time, it is the Canadian jurisdiction with the largest number of days of closure accumulated during the pandemic.
On the other hand, the executive squares around the conservative premier and defends the decision to go ahead with online lessons, postponing those in class to September.
Ford himself, in explaining his decision, stressed that the reopening of schools for two or three weeks would have represented a potential risk for the road map on the reopening of the economy.
