Several of the buses passed by Romana Siddiqui’s house as she pushed her children out the school door and handed out food and snacks for the day.
As stressful as the morning speed can be, many Canadian parents are grateful for it. Through a dangerous second wave of the pandemic, Canada managed to keep most schools open, even in the Covid-19 hotspots that were hit the hardest.
‘I’m going to be honest, I’m still sometimes nervous about it,’ Siddiqui said in an interview with CNN outside of her children’s school, ‘but the quality of their learning, it’s far better in class; you can not virtual versus in class. So that the learning did not really take place at home. ‘
Already in the spring, the Canadian provinces and territories, which are responsible for education, tried to hold on to the too often ignored axiom, and this was reinforced by medical experts. schools should be the last to close, the first to reopen.
The result was an uneven patchwork quilt with some jurisdictions offering virtual and personalized options, while others yielding a hybrid model for older students.
Siddiqui, the 16-year-old boy, Adam, the eldest of her three children, learned this school year personally, but is now virtual.
“For next year, I just hope we’re back in person again,” says Adam, describing a school experience that was far from normal, whether in person or online.
Less than an hour’s drive from Mississauga, Mark Witter does his rounds during the recess to remind kids to “stay in your zones.”
But except for the masks, even outside, the sights and sounds are conspicuously comforting, children delighting in the winter sun and clearly staying to be with friends at school.
“I was very excited to have them come back. However, it was different. We worked on building a lot of understanding with the students and the family and just explaining what our new routines were, but also to make sure. that things were as typical as they could be, ‘says Witter, the principal at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary School in the Halton region of Ontario.
The protocols comply with the guidelines set out by the provinces, school boards and local public health officials. Students at this school in Georgetown, Ontario, are in groups for classes and recesses. There is a detailed Covid-19 screening procedure for educators, students and visitors, and universal masking inside and outside the school.
When classrooms across the country reopened in September last year, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that it was a difficult decision for his family.
“We look at what the school’s plans are. We look at class sizes. We look at how the children feel about wearing masks,” Trudeau said at a news conference last summer, saying, “Like so many parents, it’s something we talk about a lot. is active. ”
Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, finally decided to teach in person to their three children who attend public schools in the Ottawa area.
But the reality of keeping everyone in school and keeping the virus out was a challenge within weeks of the school reopening in September.
Witter says two classrooms were sent home for two weeks of virtual learning and seven positive cases were identified. But the school remains open.
From British Columbia to Ontario and Quebec, Canada’s leading provincial doctors have said schools were not a significant source of spread for the virus, and that outbreaks in educational settings reflect the transmission of the wider community.
Witter also recognizes students for keeping schools open while learning and adapting to the ‘science’ that is now part of their daily curriculum.
“They wear their masks, they follow the instructions of their teachers, they wash their hands. And it was really a pleasant thing to see and just a heartwarming thing to see that the students committed themselves to the social health measures. also, ”says Witter.
Almost universally, government and education leaders have praised teachers during this pandemic, many of whom bear the burden of ensuring that students learn safely, happily and still.
Armed with a face shield and mask and a seemingly unwavering spirit, Andrea O’Donnell organizes and makes her kindergarten class at St. Francis of Assisi clean. She admits that she herself was skeptical that the security protocols would work well enough to keep schools open.
“How am I going to do that? How am I going to keep those masks on all the little ones of 4 and 5 years? How are they going to be able to physically distance themselves?” she says, adding, “And then I think, you know, we teach these kids, you know, I’m capable, capable. Yes, we can do it. And yes, we did it.”
O’Donnell says her classroom, her school and her school board are proof that children can learn to learn personally, and she says there are good reasons to try it.
“Am I worried about getting Covid? Yes,” she says, “I would rather be in the classroom. You know, I was very happy when we were allowed to come back. Just to see their faces again, it was it’s just so much more fun to be with them. “
Canadian unions representing educators across the country have spoken out in favor of more privacy, smaller class sizes, more teachers and better ventilation for schools.
Although the issues were controversial, the worst-case scenarios of dangerous Covid-19 outbreaks in schools were largely avoided.
“It’s a mixed bag. I mean, there were definitely occasional closures and widespread closures. But you know, we absolutely agree with the perspective that schools, it should be a high priority to keep schools open,” he said. has Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.
This collaborative approach to keeping schools open was far from perfect, but compromise was characterized by two deadly waves of the virus and the closure and closure.
“It was stressful at times, it was emotional at times. We just had to realize it and drop a lot of expectations,” says Siddiqui.