Province not committing to remote learning yet: Cullen

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This article was published 22/12/2021 (1773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

* UPDATE: The province announced early Wednesday morning that it will be delaying the return to school for students to Jan. 10. This move is designed to give public health officials additional time to assess the risk of the omicron variant in Manitoba. However, K-12 school staff will still be returning to work on Jan. 6 to prepare for the new winter semester. *

With local kindergarten to Grade 12 schools entering their final day of classes before the holiday break, Education Minister Cliff Cullen says the province doesn’t currently have plans to push students back into remote learning to kick off the upcoming winter term.

The Spruce Woods MLA told the Sun on Tuesday that it’s too early to tell what kind of real impact the omicron variant will have on Manitoba schools.

His message comes mere days after Brandon School Division officials confirmed that the highly infectious omicron variant had been detected in at least three local institutions: Linden Lanes, Meadows and Riverheights schools.

“Our goal has always been to get students in classrooms where possible,” Cullen said over the phone. “But if we get advice from public health [that says] this is the safest way to go in terms of remote learning, then that’s something we’re prepared to look at.”

In December 2020, then education minister Kelvin Goertzen said the province was mandating a two-week remote learning period for students in grades 7 to 12 for the beginning of January 2021.

This shift to online learning was designed to reduce the risk of COVID transmission in schools following an extended Christmas break where large-scale gatherings were more likely to occur.

However, Cullen said on Tuesday that this year’s holiday season is a bit different, since vaccines weren’t widely available to the public last December.

The education minister also pointed to the fact that children aged five to 11 have been getting immunized at an impressive rate since they became eligible in late November, with 42.7 per cent of kids in that age group receiving their first shot as of Monday.

On top of that, Cullen said the province will continue to provide K-12 schools with additional safeguards in the form of additional ventilation funding and rapid COVID tests for students in kindergarten to Grade 6.

“We will get those out to school divisions around the province over the next couple weeks, with the hope that they will have those kits in hand … so we can hopefully get back to a safe return in January.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Brandon School Division officials confirmed that the rapid antigen test kits will be distributed to local K-6 parents who want them throughout today.

Otherwise, Cullen told the Sun that Manitoba Education will keep a close eye on the spread of the omicron variant throughout the holiday break and is ready to change its back-to-school strategy in January if necessary.

“There’s a lot of information being gathered,” he said. “We’re watching what is happening in other provinces as well in terms of the increase in cases and what that may mean to [Manitoba] schools in the new year.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the province has identified 2,268 COVID cases attached to K-12 schools since Sept. 7.

The BSD is currently contending with COVID exposures in at least 15 different institutions, including an official outbreak in a Grade 5/6 Meadows School class that is impacting nine people.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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