BC Delays Students’ Return from Winter Break
Government of British Columbia/Flickr
UPDATED 11:54 PM, DEC. 29: A previous version of this story said the BCTF had called for a delay on Wednesday, when in fact, it was Tuesday. We apologize for the error.
BC Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside announced earlier today that most K-12 students across the province will be returning from Winter Break on January 10, a week later than scheduled.
“Taking a few extra days now we are setting our schools up for the best possible start,” Minister Whiteside told reporters, joined by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
“As we know the pandemic is changing but the education system in nimble and strong. Our efforts are truly focused on minimizing disruption and absenteeism”.
Children with special needs and children of heath care workers will be able to return on January 3 or 4 as expected, but all other students will file into classrooms come January 10. A statement posted 6:00 PM Wednesday from the province said school districts will be informing families of the process for allowing “students of particular need” to return to classrooms before January 10, and earlier today the Minister encouraged families to “reach out to their school principal to make those arrangements.”
School staff are still slated to return January 3.
Whiteside said the delay will be used to give schools time to prepare for a return to class with enhanced safety measures. So far, the province has paused extracurricular school sport tournaments, and will be seeking to reduce crowding within buildings, especially during class transitions and breaks.
The Minister also asserted that officials’ focus was on keeping K-12 schooling in-person, and confirmed that the delay did not mean a return to online learning, saying it was understood students did not thrive in a virtual educational environment.
“Our primary goal is to continue the work to keep students learning safely, in-person for the remainder of this school year”. Whiteside said. “This additional time will also schools to proactively implement continuity of learning plans, to unique challenges that we face.”
The BC Teachers Federation called for a delay on Tuesday, saying the school system wasn’t prepared to safely bring students back to class amid the current state of the pandemic.
“What we’re seeing right now in communities is Omicron is going through them, quite rapidly in some cases. And so the concern is the same will happen in schools,” BCTF president Teri Mooring said.
The delay comes after BC confirmed a record 2,944 cases of COVID-19, continuing a dangerous surge fuelled by the rise of the Omicron variant. Health officials noted that this record was broken with reduced testing capacity due to the cold weather, and an overwhelmed system unable to keep up with public demand.
In a statement posted to Twitter and Instagram Wednesday evening, the BCTF said while they welcome the delay, they “were disappointed that the announcement offered no indication that boosters will be fast-tracked for [BC educators], nor did Minister Whiteside commit to making N95 masks available in schools or proactively addressing the outstanding ventilation concerns in many schools.”
The Nest will be inquiring further into what the delay means for secondary students in the Vancouver School District.
“We know its been a very long year for students, and while some may be excited for an extended Winter Break, we know that many families depend on our schools being open. And it’s critical to have our schools running as smoothly as possible for the duration of the school year,” Whiteside said.