As schools prepare to re-open at least one parent is saying, ‘Kids are not the most hygienic group of people. Keeping on top of this will be exhausting, and very difficult for the staff at the schools’
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| BC Education Minister Rob Fleming at Friday's announcement of schools beginning to re-open June 1st |
On January 21st Adrian Dix, Minister of Health, and Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, issued the first of dozens and dozens of updates on what became known as the coronavirus – COVID-19.
In that first release they stated:
“The BC Centre for Disease Control and
provincial and federal authorities are closely monitoring the outbreak of
respiratory illness linked to a novel coronavirus”.
“... the risk to British Columbians is
considered low. Most cases have been reported in Wuhan and other cities
in China. But cases have also been reported outside of China, including
Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand .... to date, there have been no cases
of illness caused by the coronavirus in British Columbia or elsewhere in Canada
... we are watching the situation closely and health-care workers have been
asked to be vigilant ...”
In the days since nearly 2,500 British
Columbians contracted COVID-19, and as of Saturday, 141 people had succumbed to
the disease. The good news now however is that from May 11th up
until this past Saturday, there were only been 97 new cases reported. Additionally, hospitalizations, and those in
ICI, are down substantially.
What started as an effort to ‘bend the
curve’ and then went on to become a campaign to ‘flatten the curve’
seems to be working. And with that, a province that has seen hundreds of
thousands sheltered at home for week after week, things are beginning to open
up. BC’s Restart Plan is now underway, and with the beginnings of a transition
to normalcy, came information on Friday, from Rob Fleming’s Education Ministry,
of schools re-opening to optional classes on June 1st.
Parents will have the
choice of bringing their children back to class on a part-time basis this
school year, with the goal of returning to full-time classes in September 2020.
With that announcement however, at least one parent, who spoke with me, is asking “Why
not keep things they way they are for one or two more months, to really see
great changes happen, before we start reintroducing groups (of students) to
gather?”
“It seems too soon to start reintroducing
young groups of people together. We are trending less and less positive
cases per day so why are we so quick to jump back into regular tasks?”
Those are good questions, but amongst those and many other concerns, is
this wondering ... won’t opening up school, for only a month, be more likely to simply
disrupt things, rather then help?
Young children will have to be “trained” with new school protocols (and
this could be scary to some), and classrooms will not look or function the way
they usually do ... no sharing, no library, no movement throughout the school,
and no sitting next to each other.
The question was put to me ... “We just got comfortable with our
homeschooling routine, why go to half school, half homeschooling?”
And more importantly, at least to me, was this additional comment;
“Kids are not the most hygienic group of people! Keeping on top of
this will be exhausting and very difficult for the staff at the schools!”
It makes sense then that the official Opposition Education Critic, Dan Davies,
is calling on the provincial government to provide
further clarity for parents, teachers and students. He also has this wondering;
“How can we ensure that our teachers will be
provided with adequate PPE and that classrooms will have appropriate safety
measures in place? What will a curriculum with optional in-class learning look
like? This government has had two months to plan for this and disappointingly,
it looks like too much is being left up in the air.”
Education Minister Rob Fraser has indicated that to make sure schools are safe for
students and staff, the number of students in school each day will be reduced, and
as I have already noted, they’ll be receiving in-class instruction part time.
“School is the place
where kids learn how to connect with others and grow together, and it’s incredibly
important for students who need extra support to get more time with their
teachers and support workers,” said Fleming.
Still, the Liberals Dan Davies has concerns;
“With only nine working days until our
kids are scheduled to return to classrooms, the safety of our teachers and
students must be our top priority. If our teachers are going to juggle in-class
and virtual learning -- while maintaining proper health and safety measures,
government needs to work much more closely with our school districts to ensure
that they have the appropriate guidelines and resources to carry out safe and
effective learning.”
Davies continued, “What
I am hearing from parents, teachers, and support staff is that they have been
left to organize an incredibly complex procedure in a short amount of time with
little guidance or consultation”.
No wonder then that I’m hearing this refrain ... “We all need
to take a look at the big picture and keep safe for ourselves and the people
around us. We are all somebody’s neighbour”.
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