THUNDER BAY - The Ford Government’s decision to keep students out of the classroom for the rest of the academic year has two local school boards disappointed, not only because of the lack of social interaction with teachers and classmates before summer, but assessing the academic struggles facing students who have been learning at home.
“I don’t think the premier’s announcement was a surprise,” said Ian MacRae, director of education with the Lakehead Public School Board. “We are disappointed because we have advocated for regional reopenings for weeks.”
“Obviously, we are very disappointed,” added Pino Tassone, director of education with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board. “We were hopeful we would at least get to a situation where we could reopen schools for the last three weeks and put a positive end to the school year for our children and staff.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Premier Doug Ford announced that all publically and privately funded schools in Ontario will remain closed to in-person learning until September.
Thunder Bay students have been learning from home since March 1, while all Ontario schools have been closed since April 12.
Local school boards, along with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, have advocated for a return to in-person learning.
“It’s not as though it’s a simple issue. It’s very complex,” MacRae said. “It is difficult to follow the political narrative on this one. We are disappointed. We had hoped that given our numbers here in Thunder Bay in particular we would be candidates for a regional situation.”
Ford said modeling has shown that reopening schools could result in a six to 11 per cent increase in daily COVID-19 cases and he was not willing to risk an outbreak fueled by variants of concern.
But public health officials have expressed concern regarding the impact school closures are having on the mental health of students.
“We are really worried about the wellbeing of our students and the staff,” Tassone said. “It’s been a very difficult year. But just to get together and socially interact with their peers and teachers would have been extremely positive. It would have put closure to the year.”
More students across the province are also struggling academically and falling behind with math and reading skills.
The provincial government has announced measures throughout the summer to assist students who may be falling behind, but both MacRae and Tassone said having those extra weeks in June would have allowed teachers to determine some of the learning gaps early.
“That was one of our concerns, trying to assess where the gaps are,” Tassone said. “We are going to do a lot of work over the summer with some of our kids and we are looking at some reengagement strategies and we may have to spend the first few weeks in September just assessing our students and where their learning gaps are and reengage them.”
“That’s our first concern and that’s why we hoped we would get students back for at least a couple of weeks to determine the gaps in their learning as a result of their situation in remote learning,” MacRae added.
“We said from the start that remote learning won’t replace in-class learning with a teacher in front of them. It will be very difficult starting in September not having that opportunity.”
During the announcement, Ford also encouraged school boards to host outdoor graduation ceremonies for all grades.
That announcement came as somewhat of a surprise for MacRae.
“We are already fielding phone calls from parents,” he said. “We expect there will be some clarity on that announcement. We don’t know where that came from other than the fact that he seemed to reiterate that inside was not safe and outside was safe.”
