As the new school year approaches, the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) has released a report outlining the measures necessary for a positive return for the 2021-22 school year.
With the provincial government’s easing of COVID-19 protocols, ATA president Jason Schilling is expressing concerns for the safety of students and teachers as they are ready for a return to the classroom.
“All elementary students and half of the secondary students remain unvaccinated. This is an incredibly large group of children left vulnerable, especially with the number of variant cases rapidly growing in Alberta,”Schilling said.
Adding, “The government’s elimination of routine testing, tracing and isolation protocols will leave students, parents, and staff working blind to the exposure risk that could exist in classrooms. Clear and transparent information on the status of this virus in our community is a cornerstone of our ability to protect students.”
The ATA’s report includes nine recommendations to address COVID-19 related challenges and stresses the continuing need for funded improvements to air filtration systems in the majority of schools.
The recommendations include re-establishing regular stakeholder group meetings with an additional focus on learning and wellness, providing clear and transparent information concerning the status of the pandemic in local communities and the province, providing provincewide vaccinations, boosters, and rapid testing in schools, protecting students and staff who are at higher risk and cannot be vaccinated, providing supports to substitute teachers, carefully returning to more routine school activities and providing funding for necessary supports, providing funding and a focus on increased support for mental health and well-being, and maintaining the capacity to support remote learning.
Schilling adds that discussions need to be had with the government and education stakeholders to examine these challenges and the impacts that the pandemic has had on the learning and wellness needs of students
“Teachers’ voices cannot be cut out. Meaningful discussions need to happen with the minister, and quickly. The return-to-school plan released by the government last June was severely lacking in detail. There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.
