Like high schools, the Alliance des Professeures et Professeurs de Montréal is asking that the return to class of elementary school students be postponed to January 10, at a time when the spread of COVID-19 is raging in the province.
At the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), the return to class is scheduled for January 3. At the Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Services Center (CSMB), young people would return to the school benches on January 6.
Thursday evening, Prime Minister François Legault announced at a press conference that secondary schools will not reopen their doors before January 10, but indicated that primary schools will welcome students on the scheduled date.
“Schools are currently responsible for the majority of outbreaks listed at the provincial level. It would be completely irresponsible to force students and school staff to mix with each other the day after the New Year’s holidays, ”wrote Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre, president of the Alliance, in a letter to François Legault. , to the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, to the National Director of Public Health, Horacio Arruda, and to the Regional Director of Public Health of Montreal, Mylène Drouin.
The Alliance welcomes Quebec’s decision on secondary schools, but deplores the absence of new measures for primary schools.
We believe that the current epidemiological situation requires additional precautions. You have missed an opportunity to send a clear and cohesive message to all the teachers who have carried public school on their shoulders for 21 months now.
Extract from the letter
The cases of COVID-19 also continue to increase in the school network. Montreal’s Public Health listed 11 schools closed on Friday due to an outbreak. This is almost double compared to the day before. The “suppressive” approach adopted by the Montreal authorities consists in particular in closing a class “systematically” as soon as a case of the Omicron variant is detected there.
“We doubt that this rate will improve during the holiday season. It would be unfortunate to return to class quickly if this decision results in the closure of classes and schools in the following weeks, ”said Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre.
To date, 48% of Quebec schools have at least one active case. In Quebec, 37 schools and 910 classes are closed.
With Henri Ouellette-Vézina, Press