Prince George District Teachers Association (PGDTA) is not pleased with the province's plan for “most students” to return to the classroom this fall.
“I am really surprised at the full return of all students at 100 per cent and not even a density level within schools,” says PGDTA President Joanne Hapke.
B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry explained the province's return to school plan at a Wednesday (July 29) news conference with Education Minister Rob Fleming.
Students will be divided into “learning groups," which would also include staff that primarily only interact with each other throughout the school year.
For elementary students, those groups will be made up of about 60 people, although Henry emphasized they will not all be in the same classroom. Secondary schools will see learning groups of up to 120 people.
“We are going to have everyone back in one building at the same time and it just doesn’t make sense to me that that’s the way the province has chosen to go,” says Hapke.
She says it would have been more reasonable to have students return on a staggered timeline rather than immediately at 100 per cent capacity.
“It’s going to be a challenge for all districts. We have schools in our district that have a ton of space but that is not the norm, most of our schools don’t have a lot of space.”
Hapke gives the example of grades four to 12, where there can be as many as 30 students plus teachers, physical distancing would be very difficult to achieve.
“We could have changed things up a bit and gradually changed increased the class size together but to go 100 per cent on day one it just doesn’t make sense,” says Hapke. “
“To me it just seems like a double standard. For the general public there’s a limit of 50 people but not for schools? We have some elementary schools where the staff size is over 50.”
BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) President Teri Mooring, who was not present at the news conference, was also critical of the restart plan.
“But this announcement misses the mark on several critical components and should go back to those working groups,” she said in a statement.
“Bringing everyone back all at once, even with some version of a cohort model, on the first day after the Labour Day long weekend, is too much too soon given the many unanswered questions in today’s announcement.”
The union said it wants more collaboration at the local level between school districts and local unions, health and safety measures tested and in place before staff and students return to schools, and additional time in September for teacher to prep for the new measures and smaller classes.
The BCTF is also calling for more clarity around learning groups and how teachers’ health will be maintained through this model.
“I know teachers aren’t going to be happy with this,” says Hapke.
“We know that children need to be in schools we understand that. We want to be in front of our children but we want to be able to do this safely, so they aren’t taking anything home to their families and so teachers aren’t taking anything home to their families — We have to cognizant of that. “
- with files from Tyler Orton, Business in Vancouver
