Education Minister says intent is to keep students learning during COVID-19

The Ontario Minister of Education  was on the Lorne Brooker Show on 800 CJBQ this morning (Wednesday) to talk about the most recent announcement made by the government on Tuesday.

Stephen Lecce says they are keeping students out of school until May 4th because the level of risk of COVID-19 spread is still high.

He says the government needed to take action to make sure students keep learning.

Lecce says they will use every resource they can and the spirit is “whatever it takes”.

He says while he realizes this isn’t the perfect circumstance and isn’t ideal but students are three fourths of the way through the year and it is important they keep learning.

Lecce says students in Grades 9-12 can expect to do three hours of work per week per course. He says it may be a bit more or a bit less, but they wanted to set a standard across the province.

He says they want to have students get through this with their school year intact.

Minister of Children, Community and Social Services MPP Todd Smith also was a guest on the show and talked further about the decision made to keep schools closed for another month.

He says the focus will continue to be on the core courses.

Smith says e-learning isn’t re-inventing the wheel.

He says he understands that for some students the ease of access to the internet just isn’t possible and that is why the school boards are working to make sure students have what they need to continue to learn.

Smith say their government is making investments into the expansion of broadband and situations like this highlight why it is so important communities are connected, not just for education purposes but commerce too.

He also praised Lecce for getting another agreement done with the French Language teachers union during this pandemic. The only outstanding union yet to come to an agreement in the teacher labour dispute is OSSTF according to Smith.