Since the return to class on Tuesday, employees in the education network have been able to see firsthand the ups and downs of air quality in their classrooms, often without being able to rely on real solutions.
The Ministry of Education was committed to equipping classes with CO readers2. Over the past few weeks, it has gone through an installation blitz. As of Thursday, 70% of the 90,000 promised devices had been delivered, it is said.
Result: since the resumption of in-person classes, several workers in the education network come across these small machines at the entrance to their premises. They can read the temperature of the class and the level of CO2 in air, in parts per million (ppm).
Corine (we use a fictitious first name to protect the identity of our source) is one of those who observed on Tuesday the effect that the return of students to class has on air circulation. This week, this remedial teacher from Abitibi, who preferred not to mention her name for fear of professional reprisals, transmitted to the Duty several photos of readers displaying a CO level2 higher than 2500 ppm, i.e. 1000 ppm more than the rate recommended by the ministry.
“What do we do next? I understand it’s not life threatening. It’s just that we know that at these numbers, it will not help us for the transmission of the COVID, ”she says on the phone.
Quebec asks network professionals to open doors and windows when readings exceed 1500 ppm. “If the average exceeds 1500 ppm repeatedly despite good ventilation of the premises, the school body should consider carrying out work to improve air quality”, writes to the Duty Ministry of Education media relations officer Bryan St-Louis.
It is to shovel the problem forward, retorts the president of the Autonomous Federation of Education, Sylvain Mallette. He says he himself received a number of “worrying” readings at the start of the week. “There, we see the difficulties, whereas, for two years, we have been saying that there is an air quality problem” , he says.
In a parliamentary committee at the National Assembly last summer, the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, admitted that rather than declining, the number of dilapidated schools in Quebec had increased by two percentage points since the beginning. of the caquiste mandate. According to the latest news, this figure rose to 56% of the housing stock in education.
“Not Safe”
Léonie (also a fictitious first name) works in a sixth-grade class in Laval. It recorded CO levels there this winter2 up to 3900 ppm. “I don’t feel safe,” she blurts out.
Put on her guard by the arrival of the Omicron variant, in December, the teacher tried to obtain an air exchanger from her management. Without success: this week, his school service center emailed him an analysis asking him simply to open the windows five to ten minutes per hour.
Only problem: Léonie leaves the windows open all day long.
“It’s difficult enough, the teaching conditions right now. We have a lot of missing students. We have to work to send them things, to catch up,” she says.
“In addition to that, I have to fight to have adequate working conditions for my students and for me. We put our heads in the sand and we always answer that there is no problem, ”adds the Laval teacher.
Calibration required
According to the Ministry of Education, the first week of the winter season rhymes with “adjustment”. The devices supplied to the network will also be calibrated for a “minimum period of eight days”.
“The movements and vibrations associated with the handling of the devices can move dust into the sensors. This can slightly influence the readings up or down. […] That said, the data collected in this interval remains representative of the state of the class, and the representation of the evolution of the concentration of CO2 is fair,” said the ministry.
I have to fight to have adequate working conditions for my students and for me. We put our heads in the sand and we always answer that there is no problem.
Sylvain Mallette criticizes Quebec for rejecting work in the backyard of teachers. Open the windows, watch your reader: the teachers’ workbooks have thickened visibly since this winter, he says.
Corine assures that the teachers are doing everything possible to follow the directives of the ministry. “But we are in Abitibi. It has been -30°C for a month,” she notes. “We open the windows, but that’s when they’re not frozen,” she continues.
In this context of intense cold, Quebec must rethink its interventions, says Mr. Mallette. In his eyes, the intervention requires the installation of additional air exchangers. The Alliance of Teachers of Montreal pleads for the distribution of N95 masks in the classes of the metropolis.
“In the work of the teacher, there is a lot of individual support. In these close contacts, that could be a solution, ”underlines its president, Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre.
Quebec’s new national director of public health, Luc Boileau, says for now that N95 masks do not provide any major advantage in classrooms compared to the blue surgical mask.