The Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) requests the postponement of the return to class and requires the Legault government to install air exchangers in poorly ventilated classrooms.
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The 400 or so devices installed so far are clearly insufficient and cannot solve the aeration and ventilation problems at the source, according to the union.
If Quebec relies exclusively on the vaccination of students is wrong, deplores the FAE, believing that “air quality should be at the heart of the strategy to fight COVID-19” in schools.
“Thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of Quebec students are paying the price for the government’s erratic management of aeration and ventilation,” denounced Sylvain Mallette, president of the FAE.
The Omicron variant has spread at lightning speed in the school network, multiplying infections exponentially, since the school network alone generated 50% of the infections listed.
“Faced with such a surge, the Quebec government had no other choice but to postpone the return to class for students in elementary and secondary schools as well as for those in vocational training and adult education centers”, the AWF said.
The FAE is wondering about federal aid of $ 432 million intended for schools in Quebec, while the Legault government is proud to have interchanges that it wants to make available to school organizations.
“It is unacceptable that air exchangers are still sleeping in boxes at the Ministry of Education and that the government does not resolve, once and for all, the air quality problems in all classes”, Mr. Mallette added.