QUEEN’S PARK – NDP MPPs Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre) and Catherine Fife (Waterloo) are calling on the Ford government to stop closed-door negotiations to make remote learning permanent in Ontario and instead, focus on getting kids back to class safely. This call comes in response to the Ministry of Education’s proposed plans to expand remote learning.
“Countless parents have told us that emergency at-home learning is not a permanent solution for their kids,” said Lindo. “The Minister of Education is presenting a false choice. Until we know the impact of remote learning on wellbeing and student achievement, decisions to make it permanent are short-sighted. Parents are worried that without any research or consultation, the government is deliberately undermining and compromising in-person learning."
The Waterloo Region District School Board has also written to the Minister of Education to demonstrate their “emphatic objection” to the Ministry’s proposed changes to how kids learn.
Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife added, “After a tumultuous school year, the last thing our kids need is a backdoor move to permanently cut funding for in-person learning. Instead of taking funding from our classrooms, Minister Lecce should be focusing his efforts on making schools safer, supporting educators, and ensuring that kids can safely return to school as soon as possible.”
Lindo and Fife are calling on the government to immediately stop the rushed negotiations to implement permanent online learning without adequate research showing how students will benefit.
Quote
Andrea Brown, a Waterloo Region parent of two
“We still don’t understand the full impacts of the pandemic on our kids. After a year of uncertainty and disrupted learning, the last thing our kids need is a backdoor move to permanently cut funding for in-person learning." |
|