Temporary distance learning not an option for all

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This article was published 12/11/2020 (1938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For a growing number of Manitoba families, remote learning becomes increasingly appealing — be it COVID-19 exposures in schools, the high number of daily cases announced or patients hospitalized because of the virus.

But not all students have the option.

“I can’t punish my kids any longer,” Jason Keenan, a father of three, said during a phone call Thursday. “They have to be getting some type of education, so today’s the first day they’ve gone back to school in almost two weeks.”

The Keenans’ choices are limited, given the fact the Winnipeg family doesn’t have access to reliable internet, a computer, or the option to learn at home with packages from Sister MacNamara School.

While some schools have temporarily loosened criteria for remote learning during the restricted (code orange) phase, many that can accommodate two metres of distance between staff and students in their buildings have not.

(Manitoba has gone provincewide code red, but public schools remain at orange.)

That’s a blessing for Keenan’s daughters, who are eager to see their friends and teachers during the week. For him, it’s anxiety-inducing.

Keenan said he can’t help but worry his second grader’s classmates aren’t required to wear face masks despite spiking COVID-19 numbers: “Isn’t that like having a peeing section in the pool?”

Upwards of 6,400 students — of the more than 100,000 students in K-12 public schools in Winnipeg — have signed up for temporary distance learning in recent weeks. Broken down by division, there are approximately: 2,600 students in River-East Transcona; 2,000 in Winnipeg; 1,340 in Pembina Trails; 360 in Seven Oaks; and 188 in metro schools in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine.

Students who have been granted medical exemptions for home learning this year aren’t included in the counts, neither are statistics from St. James-Assiniboia, which did not provide details before deadline.

In Louis Riel, administrators are not making the option available because of the two metres mapped out in their buildings. In late October, the superintendent told families he understood there was demand for it, but asking classroom teachers to do both remote and in-class instruction was “unrealistic and unsustainable.”

City schools vary, some with classroom teachers that don’t have support for remote delivery; in other cases, staff do.

Corazon Price counts herself lucky: her five-year-old son was eligible for remote learning in Pembina Trails.

Fifteen minutes of livestream instruction from his classroom teacher, accompanied by his peers, isn’t ideal, she said, but the adjustment has been easier than it was in the springtime, when he suddenly switched to remote pre-school.

“We have to keep my son (home) to keep safe, for his health,” Price said. “The numbers are growing every single day, that makes me scared.”

Earlier this week, the province announced it was hiring 100 teachers for the forthcoming launch of its remote learning support centre, which is aimed at providing distance learners and teachers with additional curriculum and assessment resources, as well as tech support.

The $10-million announcement was met with disappointment from classroom teachers who are currently creating lesson plans for both in-class and remote students.

One elementary teacher, who spoke to the Free Press on the condition of anonymity, said she would have much preferred the province takeover remote instruction and provide support for schools to hire additional staff.

“I am very lucky that I only have one remote learner, but even one is too much,” she said.

During a typical school day, the Winnipeg teacher assesses her eight- and nine-year-olds in two physical classrooms — which are down the hall and around a corner from each other — and provides remote instruction to one student after the school day.

She said some days she cannot get coverage to provide supervision to all of her in-class students so there might be an hour period where she is supervising half her class via a screen.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie