We need a different back-to-school plan for rural Ontario

To the Editor:

The following is an open letter to Ontario education minister Stephen Lecce

I can understand that creating a plan for the return to school this year that would satisfy all students' needs and safety, must have been a difficult one, but the decisions that have been made locally are less than adequate for our children’s learning needs.

My children are in the Bluewater District School Board, and the board submitted a model of learning that would have children attend one course in the morning and another in the afternoon for the first quadmester, and continue this for the next three semesters. This is not an ideal return to school, but it was acceptable to many kids and parents.

It is my understanding that despite our region having no active cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), and no new cases for over two weeks, and a .008 rate of infection during the entire pandemic, that this submission was turned down by the ministry. Instead, the children will be expected to take one course all day long for the full week, then take their second course the next week and so on.

It is my understanding that the incubation period for COVID-19 is 14 days. If this is the case, the children will be in a classroom with a different cohort of kids within the two- week period regardless. I am unclear how a single class in a week will limit their risk.

Some of the other concerns that need to be pointed out, are that this current plan does not allow for the fundamental learning concepts of reflection, application, and getting help before the student falls behind. There have been many studies done on block learning, and though it may work in the short-term, it does not in the long-term and could have implications for students in the coming years. It is challenging for an adult learning a subject of interest to engage for three hours of learning, let alone a high school student trying to engage in one subject every day for a week.

Another problem is that students will, without a doubt, miss a few days of school with a runny nose, or other non-COVID-19-related health problem. This could potentially be equivalent to the course content for two weeks or more. They could potentially miss an entire unit of a course, creating more stress in an already-challenging environment.

It was my thought that these children could learn on-line if they missed a few days at school, but that is not the case. Children need to choose between on-line and in-school instruction. They would simply miss a huge amount of content of what could be a critical subject that they rely on to get into their post-secondary school of choice.

Lastly, I fear the implications this model of learning will have on the emotional well-being of our students when the rates of mental health crisis are already on the rise.

I understand that we need to be cautious with return to school, but we also need to look critically at individual boards and regions' numbers when making these decisions that have a huge impact on our children’s ability to learn most effectively. What is required in larger centres to ensure safety, certainly is not what is required in northern or rural Ontario boards.

Respectfully,
Adrienne and Tony Pollock
Ripley