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September 29, 2020 - No. 65
Reopening
of Schools
Action
of Nova Scotia Teachers Union
for Safe Reopening
 
• Irresponsible Stands of the Quebec
Government - Geneviève Royer
• Alberta Schools Resume
Under Difficult Circumstances - Kevan Hunter
Reopening of
Schools
The Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU) severely
criticizes the government of Nova
Scotia for rejecting their demands for safe reopening of schools.
The NSTU writes that on September 8, students
returned to classrooms
for the first time since March when COVID-19 restrictions were put in
place. It notes that in spite of promises from government that it would
ensure the safety of students, teachers and their families, the final
back-to-school plan fell well short of even the public health
guidelines that are in place in other workplaces across Nova Scotia.
According
to NSTU President Paul Wozney, the government held consultations with
the union on the plan, but ultimately refused to take the advice of
teachers on critical issues.
"The key to reopening school safely is reducing
class sizes so
physical distancing is possible and also ensuring adequate
ventilation," writes Wozney. "Unfortunately, Nova Scotia schools
reopened without any of those elements in place and instead teachers
are standing in front of stuffy, crowded classrooms, just like they
were in
February."
According to the union, since the release of the
final
back-to-school plan the NSTU, along with other unions and Nova Scotia
Parents for Public Education, have been calling for drastic
improvements.
At a press conference hosted by the provincial
Federation of Labour
on August 19, Nova Scotia Nurses' Union President Janet Hazelton said
Nova Scotians worked hard to keep COVID-19 out of hospitals and
suggested a similar approach should be taken in schools.
"It was taken very seriously in hospitals and for
the most part we
knew what was going on and we were assured that all of those things
were happening," she said. "I'm not hearing that with the education
system which is very unfortunate, because even with all of that the
level of anxiety for hospital staff the first month was through the
roof."
During the month of August the NSTU also launched
a #SafeSeptemberNS
campaign calling on Government to take the necessary steps to keep
COVID-19 out of schools. These steps include:
- smaller class sizes
- two-metres of physical distancing for everyone
- masks for all who can wear one
- clear protocols for informing families in the event of an outbreak at
a school
- transparency about what conditions would necessitate a return to
remote learning
- proper ventilation systems
In early August, Education and Early Childhood
Development Minister
Zach Churchill angered Nova Scotians when he made the irresponsible
suggestion that classrooms lacking proper ventilation should just leave
their windows open year-round, and turn up the heat in the winter
months.
"It's clear to teachers that schools are not
prepared to handle a
second wave of COVID-19 and that the government's current plan is just
not sustainable. Ventilation checks have not been completed. Teachers
and students with underlying health conditions have not been provided
with proper PPE. There is a bus driver shortage that was not
disclosed until after school resumed. And while it's not safe for MLAs
to resume work at Province House, students are crowded into
classrooms with only a few inches of space between desks," says Wozney.
The union says that it is the province's duty to
ensure safe
learning environments for students and their teachers, but this is not
what is happening and the government is rejecting their demands. As a
result, the union announced that it will deal with pandemic-related
health and safety violations by presenting their concerns and demands
under
the framework of Nova Scotia's Occupational Health and Safety
Act.
Ontario teachers' unions have undertaken similar action as part of
fighting for a safe reopening of schools, by suing the Ontario
government for failing to meet its health and safety obligations under
that province's Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The NSTU is
asking its members to bring all safety concerns to their school's Joint
Occupational Health and Safety Committee. It also announced that it
will be filing a policy grievance over the government's unsafe
back-to-school plan.
- Geneviève Royer
-
Quebec'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.
 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.
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.
- Kevan Hunter -
Schools reopened in Alberta during the week of
September 1. The
start of a new school year is always full of energy and excitement, and
teachers are enthusiastic to be back in the classroom where the
interactions so crucial to learning take place. Teachers and all the
school staff worked very hard to prepare for the reopening under the
very difficult conditions imposed by COVID-19. To make matters worse,
they are faced with a government which can only be called indifferent
to making schools safe. What keeps the teachers and all the staff going
is the enthusiasm of the kids to be back in school, and how important
it is to students to keep the schools open.
 Already,
there are 152 schools in Alberta with at least one COVID-19 case, 36
schools with an outbreak (defined as two to four cases), and five
schools on
"watch" with five or more cases. In three schools, there is evidence of
in-school transmission.[1]
CBC reported on September 18 that 67 staff and 831
students in
Edmonton public schools were in isolation. As of September 21, 1,400
students
and over 90 staff in Calgary public schools are in isolation. That does
not include students with symptoms who are staying home but have not
tested
positive nor been linked to a case.
This will have a serious impact on the
availability of substitute
teachers to cover all absences. When teachers are absent and there is
no sub available, other teachers have to cover those classes, giving up
their prep time. This could stretch teachers to the limit and lead to
violations of the collective agreement limits on instructional time.
Many retired teachers who are normally available part-time as
substitute teachers are choosing not to work under the present
conditions.
The government has mandated that all students from
Grades 4-12
must wear masks at all times in the school. Intensive cleaning and hand
washing/sanitizing are practiced. However, there is no physical
distancing and the
government has contemptuously dismissed the demands of teachers that
class sizes be reduced, claiming "It can't be done," which
means that they intend to continue robbing education of funding in
order to pay the rich. Nothing is being done to improve
ventilation, one of the
clear guidelines from public health authorities.
The Kenney government accepts no social
responsibility for a safe
return for students. "Alberta's belief is we're not going to micro
manage our way out of this," Kenney said. "We're only going to get
through this if people exercise personal responsibility, and that's
what we call on Albertans to do."
In keeping with this theme of
"individual responsibility" and "choice," parents and students can
elect to attend school or remain at home and enroll in online learning.
The United Conservative Party government has
reduced funding for education, and the budget
remains below 2019-2020 levels, despite all the needs to deal with
COVID-19. One quarter of classrooms have more than 30 students. As for
not "micro managing," what the government is actually doing is
concentrating all power and decision-making in the executive
power. For example, it has threatened to fire school boards which don't
toe the line, and thrown out the work of thousands of teachers who
devoted their time and effort to develop a badly needed new
curriculum.
The Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) is
carrying out a weekly
survey, the Pandemic Pulse Research Project, in partnership with
Alberta
doctors and infectious disease specialists. The ATA reports that more
than 90 per cent of teachers report extremely high levels of anxiety
and exhaustion. Students are also affected by the stress, not only
worry about getting sick or bringing COVID-19 home, but the
difficulties of wearing masks at all times and remaining at their desks
for long periods. As cold weather sets in and it is too cold to go out
for lunch, or for teachers to take their classes outside, the situation
will become even more stressful.
Forty-two per cent of COVID-19 infections in Alberta are currently
related to schools
(click to enlarge).
Teachers and education workers, parents and
concerned citizens are
taking up their social responsibility within this situation. Teachers
have taken many initiatives, including making their own protective
barriers, working out how to stagger the return to school one grade at
a time, and having teachers move from room to room while students stay
in place. There has been a great deal to figure out, with little time
to do it.
Information is needed on the measures taken when
students are
identified with COVID-19 so that there can be public discourse and
confidence in the system. When a student attends school with COVID-19,
what are the criteria to decide who must isolate? How much time elapses
between a student getting tested, a positive result, and students
being told to isolate? In the absence of a public authority providing
this information, students, parents and teachers turn to the
website of the organization Support Our Students to get data on
COVID-19 in
the schools. This information should be front and centre as part of a
public education campaign and accountability of the authorities.
 Teachers and
education leaders are speaking out. The principal at
Bowness High School in Calgary publicly challenged Jason Kenney and
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to come and spend a day at the
school, wear a mask, sanitize, sit in a typical classroom and follow a
student for a day.
The actions of the government raise a serious
question that the
failures are by design, and intended to create an atmosphere where
people think the public system is failing and cannot guarantee a safe
education. Kenney is simply saying, if you don't want your kid to be in
a class of 35 or 40, you have a "choice" and that is your personal
responsibility. "Choose" home schooling, or for those with the
financial means, a private or charter school, and for those who do not,
fend for yourself.
Solutions come when people take up social
responsibility as they are
doing. It has never been more important to provide information and
develop discussion as to the way forward. The idea that there are those
who govern and those who are governed is unacceptable in a modern
society. Members of the polity have a right to participate directly in
taking the decisions which effect their lives and those
of
their colleagues, families and neighbours and the polity
itself.
Note
1. For
the latest data on cases of COVID-19 in Alberta schools, click here.
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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