/ Napanee Today
Jan 8, 2021 12:21 PM
We now know elementary students won’t be going back to in-class learning next week in our region.
Sam Hammond, President of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, spoke with myFM and had this message for parents who may be having a hard time right now.
/ Napanee Today
Jan 7, 2021 8:54 AM
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is calling on Public Health Units to reconsider the return of all elementary students to class next week. They feel it is too soon to do so when the rest of the province is still in a shutdown. They feel a safe return cannot happen unless urgent and immediate actions are taken to implement a safety plan.
Premier Doug Ford said they re reconsidering the plan to return to school with COVID-19 cases surging. We re going to talk to the health table and the chief medical officer and get their advice, Ford said at a press conference on Wednesday. We re going to take that advice and announce that in the next day or so. The EFTO said the province has failed to protect Ontario residents, urging public health units to prevent the return to school. A safe return cannot be ensured unless urgent and immediate actions are taken to implement a safety plan that reduces class sizes, improves ventilation, and introduces broad in-school asymptomatic testing when in-person attendance resumes, a statement from the union said in part.
Published Thursday, January 7, 2021 11:11AM EST Last Updated Thursday, January 7, 2021 5:49PM EST In-person learning at elementary schools across southern Ontario won’t resume for another two weeks following an uptick in positivity rates among children that coincided with the holiday break. Students were scheduled to return to classrooms on Monday following a week of online learning but the reopening of schools has now been pushed back until Jan. 25 for the 27 health units in southern Ontario. In-person instruction will, however, still resume at elementary schools in northern Ontario on Monday due to the lower case counts there. The announcement, which came via press release, comes just days after Education Minister Stephen Lecce sent an open letter to parents in which he reassured them that elementary schools would reopen on Jan. 11 as scheduled.
ETFO president: It makes no sense for students to return to class with province under lockdown
by news staff
Last Updated Jan 6, 2021 at 1:56 pm EDT
Elementary students are tentatively slated to return to their classrooms on January 11. Jerry Wang
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is asking medical officers of health in public health units across the province to reconsider the resumption of in-class learning next week.
President Sam Hammond says
“Educators know that in-person learning provides the most effective and equitable learning environment, but unfortunately we are at the height of this pandemic. It makes no sense for the government to send students, teachers and education workers back to school while the province is locked for another two to three weeks,” Hammond said on Wednesday.