Quebec Government's Irresponsible StandsQuebec's 107,744 elementary and high school teachers and their 1,216,791 students are entering their fifth week of school under the pandemic. Elementary and secondary school teachers and education workers are continuing the initiatives they have been taking since they went back to school to ensure their safety and that of their students. Every day, they make sure they wear their masks and stay two metres apart from each other and their students. They ensure a presence in public areas to remind young people to wear their masks, and provide them with one in case their mask is forgotten, lost or damaged. Teachers add this task to their work to provide quality teaching and educational activities in a context where travel is limited -- students hardly leave their class all day and have little or no access to extra-curricular cultural and sports activities.
On September 24, the government counted 722 confirmed cases in the schools -- 632 students and 90 staff members. This brought the total number of positive cases since schools reopened to 1,163. Currently, 427 classes have been closed across Quebec and there is no indication that the frequency of outbreaks and class closures will decrease. This has not convinced the Quebec government that the teachers' demand for physical distancing between students in the classroom should be implemented. The government has stated that the problem of outbreaks is a problem of "community transmission" of the virus and, according to the government, schools are not part of the community. The problem is said to come from outside, so the safety measures that are required in the community outside the schools, including physical distancing, have no place in schools. A school is a living social environment where hundreds, or sometimes even more than 2,000 people, live together for more than eight hours a day. School are integral part, and a most active part, of the community. The government would rather do anything else but reduce class sizes in order to make physical distancing possible in the classroom. The refusal to reduce class sizes is actually part of the anti-social offensive on education which has been going on for over 30 years. To introduce physical distancing into the classroom and reduce class sizes would mean working with teachers, education workers and students to make these changes then assess and improve them as the situation evolves. This would create an atmosphere of enthusiasm and a high level of consciousness among everyone in the schools and in society as a whole. Teachers are more than eager to contribute so that such changes can be made for the well-being of all and students would also be eager to participate. Teachers have made that clear over and over again yet have been ignored by the government. The government's determination to keep all the power to make decisions in its hands, even if it makes no sense, has led it to propose the criminalization of youth as a solution to the problem of halting the spread of the pandemic. For example, a letter to parents from the School of Service Centre in Portneuf (in the Mauricie region) informed them that the Sûreté du Québec now has a mandate to impose $560 fines on young people who do not stay two metres apart when outdoors. It is totally irrational to pretend that if the students' conditions in school do not include physical distancing, that physical distancing will miraculously occur once the students are out of school and back in the "community," and, if not, a fine will solve the problem. The Quebec government is now suggesting that if the outbreak statistics are not going the way it wants, including in schools, it may well consider closing some or all of them. This morbid obsession with defeat does not represent the spirit of teachers, education workers, students or the public. Teachers and education workers do not want schools to close. They want to teach and protect the students during the pandemic. This can only be done in accordance with high standards of health and safety in which teachers and support staff must have a decisive say. The government must abandon its "my way or the highway" approach and respect the right of those who teach young people and maintain the schools to define the conditions under which they practice their profession and trade, including, and especially, in a crisis situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: N-H Nadeau)
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These
efforts come up against the irresponsible stands of the Quebec
government which are aimed at ensuring that teachers and education
workers cannot decide on the conditions in schools in order to defend
the health and safety of all.