Schools re-opened on September 3, 2020, across Alberta in a new world infested by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The number of cases of COVID-19 in Alberta is on the rise, over 600 cases within the last 5 days – scary’eh?
Some parents are sending their children back to school and others are scared to do so.
The biggest challenge for two full time working parents is who to take care of the kids when they’re at work and the workload for parents taking the online learning route, becoming a “teacher assistant”.
Some parents are taking their kids on the online route to switch to in class-learning if everything goes well in the first quarter of the school year, while others can’t afford to stay at home or do the heavy lifting involved.
Dr. Hinshaw says there’s no right or wrong approach.
Are you a parent, are your kids going back to in-person or online learning, how are you going about it?
Is Dr. Hinshaw changing her prescription?
Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw who have been saying that mask wearing is very important part of protecting others from COVID-19, now makes mask non-mandatory in classrooms due to the communication challenge it poses.
Also, Dr. Hinshaw says mask provides another layer of protection only in conjunction with other measures like social distancing which is also not the case in most of our classrooms.
The Chief Medical Officer said masking is mandatory when students of one class (one cohort) meet those of other classes (different cohort). When two metres social distancing is not possible, desk will be placed such that students do not have to face one another.
In the press conference today, the Alberta medical star said that these measures are in line with what is being implemented in other jurisdictions and in countries such as Germany.
Class size is a big part of this discussion as it determines social distancing in classrooms and the risk of contracting COVID-19 for our kids.
Alberta NDP calls for a reduction in class sizes, which Alberta Education Minister said it’s not realistic.
Alberta Teachers Association calls for a delay in the re-opening of schools to give more time to put things together to properly protect our kids in a COVID-19 ravaged world. Well, nope! Says Education Minister.
School Boards across Alberta say they do not have enough funds to prepare for school re-opening in this pandemic times, while Alberta Minister of Education, Adriana Lagrange, said in a press conference this morning, that schools have enough money especially with new $262 million funding from the federal government to take care of COVID-19 related back-to-school needs.
Dr. Hinshaw said she will be monitoring the situation in schools closely and schools can be moved from one scenario to another if need be.
“…We will get through this next challenge by working together, relying on evidence and adjusting our approach when needed based on new information,” Dr. Hinshaw.
Get COVID-19 updates at http://alberta.ca/COVID19.
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