Halifax, NS — With growing numbers of school COVID-19 cases along with confirmation of community spread inside the HRM and potentially other regions, the NSTU is questioning why public health has not advised government to pivot to full remote learning at more schools.
“All of us recognize that in-person learning is far superior to virtual learning and we’ve been fortunate to have had eight months of uninterrupted public education inside our provincial bubble. However, circumstances have changed with the emergence of new and more dangerous variants. Our top priority must be stopping the spread and saving lives.”
Wozney adds: “Where community spread is present, schools are not healthy learning environments right now. Teachers, parents, and students are scared. There have been 28 schools with COVID-19 cases in just a week. Hundreds, if not thousands of students, teachers and their families are currently required to self-isolate and it’s growing by the day. This is not sustainable.”
The NSTU believes that with the emergence of new variants and given what’s recently transpired in Ontario and across Western Canada, it’s in the best interest of schools and the communities they serve to proactively stop the spread of the virus. Last week, schools in Dartmouth and its surrounding communities were closed to in-person learning for two weeks. The NSTU believes it’s time to take the same approach in other regions. The NSTU is confident that our teachers are well prepared to provide quality remote learning during the circuit-break measure.
“Schools are the most interconnected workplaces in our province. If you don’t have healthy schools, you don’t have healthy communities, and vice versa. I know this is an extremely challenging time for families, which is why government needs to make the tough choices required to protect lives and beat back this virus as quickly as possible,” says Wozney.
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