In-person classes have restarted today in only seven Ontario regions, meaning that millions of students and parents are still stranded at the mercy of remote learning due to COVID-19 fears.
According to Education Minister Stephen Lecce, this means that 100,000 of Ontario’s 2 million students will finally be able to return to class for the first time since Christmas break.
While Ontario already had some of the strictest hygiene measures in its school, the government has decided to implement more measures to reassure parents that schools are safe. This includes mandatory masking for Grades 1-3, which goes against the advice of SickKids, who recommended against masking young school children.
According to CP24 the Ontario government will also introduce a "targeted asymptomatic testing" regime to spot COVID-19 cases. A recent study found that at least 1 in 3 COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic.
In-person learning resumed in Northern Ontario on January 11, but closures were extended twice in other regions. Hotspots like Toronto, York, Peel, Hamilton, and Windsor-Essex won't see schools reopen until at least February 10.
School closures were also extended for places like Ottawa, despite the city’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches supporting the reopening of schools. In fact, schools have not proven to be superspreaders, only 0.3 percent of Ontario students had COVID-19, and 0.00039 percent of students transmitted COVID-19 to another student or teacher.
Ontario is currently the only jurisdiction in the country where schools remain closed, something which is frustrating parents. School closures have shown to negatively impact the academics and health of students. The situation was so bad in the spring that the Ontario government had to pass a policy to prevent students from failing a course, and had to provide mental health resources.
The seven public health units where in-class learning resumes today are: the Grey Bruce Health Unit; the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit; the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit; the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Health Unit; the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit; Peterborough Public Health and Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
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