New health orders ease back-to-school stress

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2021 (1657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Uneasy feelings about the end of summer and a new school year for teachers, students and parents are as fundamental as reading, writing and arithmetic.

We all owe some empathy and encouraging thoughts toward those who return to schools this week despite there being no end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, nor to the uncertainty it has created in classrooms around the world.

Students and teachers in Manitoba have had to endure so many awkward moments for an entire school year, and a good portion of another, since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Not only have regular lessons been taught and learned, they’ve had to be done while teachers figured out how to offer classes and engage their students online, a far different environment than they are used to. Meanwhile, students and parents had to decipher instructions so they could receive those online lessons and assignments while using home computers and tablets — if they are able to afford the technology.

Parents, many of whom have had to adapt to their own work-at-home requirements during the pandemic, have had to take a greater role in making sure their children focused on their studies. This unexpected burden brought new respect for teachers, whose skills in this area are easily taken for granted.

When students and teachers returned to classrooms during the 2020-21 school year, there was a catch: pupils had to put up with wearing masks for hours on end, with many complaining about not being able to hear or understand teachers and their friends, while teachers had to encourage youngsters who were distracted and annoyed by their face coverings.

Teachers and other school staff also worried about interacting with the youngest of students, since children under 12 remain ineligible for the vaccines that have been effective and safe at protecting teens and adults from the worst symptoms of COVID-19.

And through all that, the pandemic anxiety has persisted, owing in large part to the paucity of clear information from the provincial government and school boards on how the educational process will proceed as risks rise and fall.

So it must come as a small bit of relief to anyone who heads to school this week that the province, in the waning days of summer, decided to follow in many school boards’ footsteps by making masks mandatory in Manitoba schools for all grades and mandating vaccinations for teachers and staff. In making the announcement, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said the province will also require frequent COVID-19 testing for staff members who cannot prove they are fully immunized.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society and the Manitoba School Boards Association welcomed the province’s ruling, with MSBA president Alan Campbell saying he’s confident the association will be able to set up a testing system for teachers and staff members in time for the beginning of classes on Sept. 8.

These measures to create a safer environment for classroom learning will also make Manitoba safer as well.

More rigorous measures to prevent COVID-19 in schools should lower the risk of outbreaks, which in turn will reduce the likelihood of unvaccinated children bringing the coronavirus home to infect loved ones.

The latest public-health orders suggest the province may finally have learned a thing or two about providing direction during the pandemic. Let’s hope this “teachable moment” regarding clear messages is reflected more widely in the government’s COVID-19 communication.