Ontario’s education minister and top doctor are confident students will be back in schools in September

thestar.com
July 7, 2021
Robert Benzie

See you in September, students.

Both Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, are confident schoolchildren will return to classrooms after the summer break thanks to rapidly increasing vaccination rates.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc for students with schools shuttered from March 2020 until last September and then again since April, meaning kids have lost 26 weeks of in-class learning due to COVID-19.

“What I’ve been focused on for the past weeks is getting children back into class full time this September, full stop. That is our priority,” Lecce said Tuesday at a Richmond Hill school.

“We’re very pleased to see a high rate of vaccine uptake from so many young people in Ontario 12 up, and, of course, adults,” the minister said.

“We’ve set aside sufficient supply for the second doses in August, (and) we think by increasing those numbers we’re going to have a more normal September,” he said, conceding “a very small number of families” will choose to have their kids continue to learn online.

“So our intention and our commitment is to get every child in class in September.”

As of Monday, the province announced all children and young people from 12 to 17 could book their second dose of Pfizer vaccine, the only shots approved for that age group.
So far 78.4 per cent of Ontarians 18 and up have had one shot while 47.8 per cent are fully vaccinated. Among all eligible residents 12 and up, the rate is 67.9 per cent with one dose and 39.8 per cent with both.

Moore said he is “working very closely with the Ministry of Education to have the protocols and policies for safe reopening in the fall.”

“I am optimistic that we can achieve -- without any additional health policy -- high levels of protection in high schools, especially given the age groups that are eligible right now,” the chief public health doctor told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“We will be working diligently with local public health agencies and the respective school boards to have the highest rates we can achieve,” he said.

“So many Ontarians of that age group are stepping up and becoming immunized, that I’m encouraged that we can achieve the rates we need.”

Also Tuesday, Lecce announced the provincial government has earmarked $2.4 million to help education boards, teachers, and school staff prevent the sex trafficking of students.

That complements Ontario’s modernized health curriculum introduced two years ago, which includes educating kids about the dangers of sex trafficking.

With schools set to reopen in two months, there is pressure on Lecce to unveil a comprehensive plan to ensure schools are safe from COVID-19.

“The hybrid learning fiasco must end and students must be back in schools, safely. Yet Stephen Lecce appears to be avoiding investment in our children, again,” said NDP MPP Marit Stiles (Davenport).

“There should be a massive effort underway to install improved ventilation in every classroom in Ontario,” said Stiles.

“There should be a herculean hiring effort happening now to ensure small class sizes where kids can get one-on-one support when they need it, as they recover academically and emotionally from the rough year behind us,” she said.

On Monday, Lecce said “Ontario has $450 million in active air ventilation projects under way, supporting over 2,000 projects” in more than 1,000 schools.

“We have improved over 96 per cent of air ventilation systems going back to last October (and) 90 per cent of our schools with ... mechanical air ventilation systems have been ... recommissioned entirely or improved,” he said.

The minister noted that of the 25,000 Toronto classrooms that were used this past school year, “every one of them had to have the filter.”

But Stiles maintained the Progressive Conservatives “want online learning to be a permanent fixture in our kids’ education.”

“This is no time for big cuts and bad choices on the backs of our kid,” the New Democrat said.

“It’s time to move heaven and earth to get our kids into small, safe, well-ventilated classrooms for regular in-school learning in September.”