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Ontario releases back-to school plan

August 13, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Paula Brown, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ontario students returning to in-person learning this school year will see themselves in an environment close to that of pre-pandemic, as the Ontario government unveils the back-to-school plan.

The Ministry of Education released a 26-page document on Tuesday (Aug. 3) that guides school boards for the return of students in September.

Secondary and elementary school students will return to the classroom five days a week, with 300 minutes of instruction come the fall. But, the document also warns the school boards to be prepared with plans to move quickly to remote learning.

Despite the caution of providing a remote learning plan, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Kieran Moore told reporters in his weekly briefing on Tuesday that he does not envision schools being closed again.

“I think we have to normalize COVID-19 for schools and have an approach that’s prudent and that’s cautious but realized yeah we’re going to have a rise in cases but we’re going to adhere to the best practices to minimize the spread and to keep our communities safe,” said Moore.

Students enrolled in elementary schools (Kindergarten through to Grade 8) will be cohorted for the full day and will remain with one teacher, where possible. Exceptions to these cohorts include specialized education staff and teachers such as French teachers and support staff, who are permitted to go into classrooms and multiple schools.

The document said students from different cohorts will be able to interact outside with distancing or inside with distancing and masks as well as in common spaces such as libraries and cafeterias.

For students at the secondary school level, school boards have been instructed to timetable students in no more than two courses at a time for the fall semester in order to “preserve the option of reverting to more restrictive measures.”

School boards will employ multiple daily COVID-19 protocols including students completing a self-screening before school, and the Ministry of Education directing on-site screening during potential higher periods of transmission such as a after a holiday period.

Students in Grade 1 to Grade 12 are required to wear face masks indoors and in class, but will be able to remove them for eating and during low-contact physical activity.

The back-to school plan permits students interacting with each other outside of their cohorts during recess and breaks as well as eating together with no distancing outdoors and distancing indoors.

Schools will also be able to hold assemblies and field trips, subject to Ontario’s reopening plan.

With the back-to school plan, a number of programs and activities that have been halted during the pandemic will be allowed to resume.

Music programs, including singing and the use of wind instruments are permitted with adequate ventilation, while health classes that used use gyms, swimming pools, change rooms, and weight rooms can also resume with distancing.

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic schools sports teams will be able to play again, although high-contact activities are only permitted outdoors.

The document says the community is also able to use the schools as long as activities align with public health guidance.

On the same day the back-to-school plan was released, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) called the plan “incomplete and inadequate”.

The ETFO said to ensure a safe and sustainable return to school the government needs to take a number of actions including lower class size, on-site asymptomatic testing, and evidence of adequate ventilation.

“It’s clear that Premier Ford and Minister Lecce are relying on vaccinations alone to provide a safe school reopening and a return to extracurriculars. What they seem to have forgotten is that Ontarians remain at risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, and most elementary children are ineligible for vaccines,” said ETFO President Sam Hammond.

On Wednesday (Aug. 4), the Ontario government announced $25 million in funding to improve ventilation in schools.

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