How schools are pushing through to keep students learning in person despite Omicron – CBC

‘We are still open for the most part and struggling through,’ says Saskatchewan teacher union head

Jan 24, 2022

Friday was Matthew Morris’s first day back in class after contracting COVID-19 earlier this month. His Grade 7 students, who returned two days earlier, bombarded the Toronto teacher with one question — but not the one he’d anticipated.

“‘Can we have gym?’ at least half a dozen times from 9:00 to 9:05,” he recalled, with amusement.

Morris explained why he’d been gone, but instead of a flurry of questions or the awkward reception he’d expected — they listened nonchalantly and simply moved on. “We kind of rolled right into where we left off in December, so it was definitely a good feeling.”

Still, school is different so far in 2022. Morris came back to some N95 masks — among the new measures Ontario is sending to the province’s education staff — plus new COVID-19 screening guidelines and protocols to review. Just 12 kids turned up for his regularly 27-student class. He estimated that nearly a quarter of his colleagues were absent Friday from his Scarborough, Ont., school.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/january-snapshot-school-return-1.6319285