In Ontario’s publicly funded education system, students, teachers and families began “at-home learning” on Monday, April 6th. Behind the scenes, School Boards, the Ministry of Education, Principals, Vice-Principals, and Teachers had been preparing for this model of learning for several weeks prior to the launch on April 6th.
A lot of people in many different roles within the publicly funded education system have come together to make at-home learning possible. This commitment, creativity, and collaboration is ensuring that Ontario students can continue with their learning and, perhaps even more importantly, can continue with some regular rhythm and routine in their days – even while actual school buildings are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To everyone who has been a part of the massive effort to transition our public education system to “at-home learning” for now, Fix Our Schools extends a sincere thank you! To the parents who are supporting their at-home learners – be kind to yourselves! If everything isn’t quite going perfectly each day, you may take solace in some of the points raised in a recent Globe & Mail article entitled, “How much should parents be sweating homeschooling?“. And some of you may be keen to see how each province in Canada is addressing education during this unusual time in history, in which case you may like to review the latest People for Education’s hot-off-the-press Canada-wide Education during COVID-19 Tracker.
To the caretakers who continue to work in our schools to deep clean and conduct routine maintenance while students are not present – thanks to all of you as well! We know that all students, parents, teachers, and education workers are missing those school buildings right now and the sense of community that they bring. Absence does, indeed, make the heart grow fonder! We know that people are optimistically looking forward to a day in the not-too-distant future when they can once again congregate in schools – so thank you to everyone who is working to take care of these critical public buildings while they are closed to students and teachers at the moment.