We didn’t hear a lot in terms of specifics, but it appears that Saskatchewan students will be back in class when school starts up in September.
The provincial government announced last week their intention to have students studying in the classroom. Of course, conventional in-person learning has been shut down since mid-March, when classrooms were shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students have been able to continue learning from their homes through digital avenues, but it’s not the same as being in the classroom. In many cases, there hasn’t been the same workload, for both students and teachers, since learning went digital.
And the kids obviously don’t get the benefits of sports and extracurricular activities like they would at school.
It’s great that many teachers have found ways to engage students through online forums for extracurricular programs, but it’s still very different from what they would experience when they come together.
Teachers and students who have been part of this online learning deserve a lot of credit for doing so, rather than just sitting at home and waiting for the pandemic to pass. It’s encouraging to see the number of students who have been attending classes digitally.
We have to remember that the resumption of in-person learning in September is not a slam dunk. There is still a chance that we could see a surge in the number of cases of COVID-19 in the province, or that school might not resume in the fall for some areas if they see a spike in cases.
We also have to remember that expectations need to be tempered for what school will look like in September. We’ve seen what socially-distanced classrooms look like in other provinces. The provinces that have opened up their schools again for a few weeks before summer vacation have had just a handful of kids in each room. Attendance has been optional, and many parents have opted to keep their kids at home, rather than chancing a return to school.
You have to wonder how extracurricular activities such as sports, band and choirs can happen during COVID-19 if restrictions are the same or similar to what they are now. Some sports, such as golf, can function fairly easily in this era of social distancing, as we have seen with the reopening of golf courses. Others, such as football and soccer, are much more difficult to have if the two-metre restriction remains.
And how do you get a large choir with several dozen members to rehearse when people need to be two metres apart?
How will cafeteria service happen if we might be in a situation in which only a few dozen people are allowed in a room at once in Phase 4? It’s not as simple as a restaurant, since most schools only have one lunch break, and therefore a limited time for kids to get their lunch.
Will libraries be able to open up to students? Will computer labs be accessible?
How do you navigate the schedule for when kids arrive for the start of the school day, and depart at the end? The days of having a mad rush to the exit doors once the final bell sounds appear to be over for now.
While many people aren’t as obsessive about social distancing as they were two or three months ago, we can’t completely ignore it, and you can be sure that schools will be as vigilant as possible.
We’re hearing speculation on whether all kids will be in the school at once, or if we’ll be looking at staggered schedules and online learning to allow for kids to return to class.
If nothing else, hopefully kids won’t take being in school for granted, at least for a little while. Sept. 1 might mark the greatest level of excitement among kids for the first day of school in our lifetimes.
We’ll have a much better idea of what education will look like in September once the guidelines are released.
Perhaps it would have been better for the government to wait for the guidelines to be ready before making any formal announcements; it would have put the brakes on some of the speculation we’ve heard about what could be next.
But at least we have a picture for parents, teachers and students who have been wondering what will happen in early September.
