According to Quebec, there would be a single class where students are officially experiencing a break in services due to absences related to COVID-19. However, for parents and teachers alike, student services go far beyond open or closed classes.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Since mid-November, the daughter of Isabelle Héroux has been going to class as usual, at the small primary school of La Falaise, in Leclercville, in Chaudière-Appalaches. Removed from class because she is pregnant, the teacher talks to her students on a screen while a supervisor is in charge of supervising them.
“The students don’t have any individual instruction. If they have a question, they should always ask it in front of the whole class. I’m not a teacher, but teaching primary school at your place shouldn’t be ideal,” says M.me Heroux.
For more than two months, this mother has been stepping up to find out when we can remedy this “temporary” solution.
I was going around in circles: the school service center sent me back to the director, who told me that it was because of the staff shortage.
Isabelle Héroux, mother of a student from the Falaise school, in Leclercville
Mme Héroux went knocking on the door of the student protector at her service centre.
Such distance learning is not a break in services as understood by the Ministère de l’Éducation. In a press briefing on Monday, Minister Jean-François Roberge explained that a break in services, “that would mean that we have to close a class, we send children home and they do not have access to lessons “. As of Friday, there was only one class in Quebec in this situation.
“More than a closed class”
For the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec, the definition of service disruption in schools is much broader.
“It’s much more than just a closed class! For us, it’s when we don’t meet a student’s need,” says its president, Kévin Roy.
These needs are numerous: having a bus to get to school, educators at the daycare service, teachers who do not teach two classes at the same time, professional services if necessary, to name a few. .
We still call on professionals to take charge of classes [en l’absence d’enseignants], but this professional had student support planned for his day, and the students did not.
Kevin Roy, President of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec
On social networks, teachers report remedial teachers called upon to replace physical education teachers, classes of students with autism spectrum disorder deprived of special education technicians, teachers who replace educators in Guard Service.
Situations, note some, which existed long before the pandemic, but which are now amplified, even normalized.
“Better than Ontario”
As of last Friday, there were 2% of students and 1% of teachers absent due to COVID-19, or 31,000 students and 1,400 teachers. Among staff members other than teachers, there were 1,596 absentees.
“To date, we are doing better than Ontario,” said Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge on Tuesday, revealing these figures on Twitter.
In Quebec, three schools are closed or partially closed. Nearly 700 teachers must give their lessons remotely and 91 groups of students are homeschooling.
Classes switch to remote learning when at least 60% of students are in isolation due to COVID-19.
In Ontario, where 11 schools were closed on Tuesday, parents are notified if the absenteeism rate reaches 30% in a school. The establishment can then close, or we tighten sanitary measures.
“Daily support”
The Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec receives many requests from parents whose children must be isolated due to COVID-19 and who report variable services depending on where you are.
“We are talking about daily support for students. It’s not clear. How is daily support defined? asks its president, Kévin Roy.
Isabelle Héroux points out that if school is compulsory, students must receive an education there. On Tuesday, she learned that the teacher who was doing the school remotely is now on sick leave.
At the Navigators school service center, we assure that we are “actively working” to find a replacement. The students in this class, it is added, “have been well supervised and have never been left to their own devices”.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
The teacher André Langevin
Roberge intervenes so that a teacher can stay in class
The Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, intervened so that a teacher who was refused to postpone a leave could remain in class with his students until the end of the school year. The Press reported on Tuesday the story of André Langevin, a teacher in a Montreal elementary school, who had tried unsuccessfully to postpone a vacation of several months that he had planned five years ago. “Reading this article [mardi] morning, I immediately asked my department to work with the CSSDM to find a solution. I have just learned that Mr. Langevin will be able to continue to give his class, ”wrote Minister Roberge on Twitter, Tuesday evening.
Marie-Eve Morasse, The Press