Ottawa elementary teachers raising back-to-class safety concerns
Posted Jan 29, 2021 03:41:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) believes the best place for kids to learn is in physical classrooms, but some of its members remain unsure about how safe it's going to be when they greet students after just one weekend to prepare.
The government says it wants to see stronger masking protocols in place, including for students in Grades 1-to-3, expanded access to targeted asymptomatic testing, and stricter screening protocols.
But President of the Ottawa-Carleton branch of ETFO Susan Gardner says there are other major issues from the fall which have not been addressed.
“So you have like 29 students in a kindergarten class, well, they definitely can't distance from one another. So I think that we need to go back to the original plan… the issues that were there from the beginning — they still exist,” she explains. “And so… some of the solutions just shouldn't be thrown away, we should be looking at those again; so, smaller class sizes, looking at the ventilation [in classrooms], looking at HEPA filters… increased PPE.”
Gardner says, “The [COVID-19] numbers in the community seem to be down, but in terms of protocols, and what safety protocols we have in place, there's not a lot of change.”
The local ETFO president thinks the Ford government needs to put more money into education and treat educators with more respect.
“We do believe that the best place for children is school. We do believe that education should be happening in schools,” she adds. “We just believe that it should be happening safely. So, you know, if the community numbers are low and safety protocols are increased, then absolutely, it is where we should be.”
