In-person learning will return for students in Northern Ontario on Monday January 11th.
In a letter sent over the weekend, Education Minister Stephen Lecce says there will be no change to the start dates, re-iterating that “schools are not a source of rising community transmission” and that the institutions have been protected in part due to the extended holiday break.
Students will be taking part in remote, virtual learning starting Monday.
Lecce went onto say in the letter:
“We believe so strongly that schools are essential to the well-being, mental health and development of a child, and therefore, must be safeguarded at all costs to ensure they can remain open for safe in-class instruction. I want to reassure parents that according to the province’s leading doctors, our schools are safe, with eight out of 10 schools in this province having no cases of COVID-19 and based on board reporting, 99.64 per cent of students have not reported a case of COVID-19.”
976 of Ontario’s 4,828 schools have reported a case of COVID-19.