Remote learning decision coming soon

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This article was published 30/11/2020 (1859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Teachers, students and parents are to learn in the next few days whether there will be an extended school break this holiday season and whether Manitoba classrooms will switch to remote learning.

“We’ll have more to say about that this week,” Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Monday, when pressed in the legislature to reveal the government’s plans.

He told a local media outlet the news could come Thursday.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said the public needs to know the minister’s general plan right now, even if there are still some details to be worked out.

With only three weeks before the winter break, “Nobody… knows where this government is heading with the education plan,” he said.

Parents, child care centre directors and educational assistants need time to adapt to any new plan, Kinew said.

“At least give people fair warning so that these child care centres can start to think about staffing, so that the teachers can start to firm up their lesson planning, so that parents… know what the holiday is going to look like,” he said Monday.

“Imagine if you’re an educational assistant and there’s no school for the first two weeks in January. That means potentially, unless the government puts a targeted program (in place) to help these folks, it means you might not have pay for that two weeks when most of us have the highest credit card bills and other loan payments.”

— Larry Kusch