[GTranslate]Ontario in lockdown but schools remain open. That’s basically what Premier Doug Ford announced yesterday. An announcement also awaited with apprehension by the world of school that this year is going on sobbing between closures and openings, distance teaching and lessons in presence.
It was not a surprise but a confirmation that of yesterday. Despite the Covid-19 infections, which, as in the province, quickly rise even in schools, the closure of the latter is currently out of the question. Education Minister Stephen Lecce had already said this and repeated it more than once, promising ‘high-security measures’.
Lecce has stated that there are no plans to close schools at this time. “Schools will remain open, it is critical to students’ mental health and learning- said the minister – the Chief Medical Officer of Health said schools continue to be safe. Against the third wave, strict protocols kept 98.7% of schools open and 74% case-free. Students deserve to be in class.”
There are currently 63 schools across the province closed and have therefore temporarily switched to remote learning while there are 1,240 institutions where outbreaks of the virus have broken out. The new infections also continue to gallop non-stop: in the last twenty-four hours there have been 249 of which 211 are students, 36 teachers and two are non-teaching staff.
However, ministry officials insist that schools are safe, pointing out that in about three-quarters of them there are no active cases. What remains unclear, however, is what could happen after the March Break postponed to April 12: Lecce has promised that students will return to the classrooms but that infection control and prevention measures will be “strengthened” and that there will be “greater access to Covid tests”.
Meanwhile, more than one Ontario school board has indicated that it will take over the situation and soon move on to distance learning alone. First of these is the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) which has asked its schools to be prepared to transfer to online learning if it is necessary to close a class or the entire school. “Basically this is a warning to ensure – said TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird – a smooth transition.” And on the same line also travels the Niagara Catholic District School Board which on Wednesday sent an email to the families of its students to “remind their children to take home school supplies and personal items for the long weekend”. Although this request is veiled, it suggests that a return in school classrooms may not take place after Easter.
The chaos has served, one might say, between the uncertainty of an evolving situation and the controversy that arises from the decision to keep schools open despite the lockdown throughout the province.
