The Omicron variant has entered schools and as a result some are preparing to do distance schooling in January. Children will be coming home for the holidays with their arms laden with books.
For the pupils, it is the time for days in pajamas, for the last dictations, for “award films”. Behind the scenes, in schools, we sometimes prepare ourselves for scenarios that are in no way magical.
“This morning, we instructed the teachers to make sure that the children leave school with their exercise books and their school effects for the Christmas break,” wrote the principal of a Montreal elementary school. . “We prefer to be more outgoing,” he adds.
This scenario occurs in several schools in the metropolis, although it is not “an official message neither from the Montreal school service center, nor from the government”, specifies another elementary school principal in her message to parents.
In the last few days, the Omicron variant has forced the closure of two elementary schools in Montreal, namely the Saint-Geneviève Sud school, in LaSalle, and the Coquelicots school, also of the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center.
Faced with the rise in the number of cases, parents do not take any risks and keep their children at home, observes the director of Charles-Lemoyne college, which welcomes students from both primary and secondary schools.
In elementary school, there are outbreaks and, due to the increase in cases, there are more and more parents who are keeping their children at home for prevention.
David Bowles, Director of Charles-Lemoyne College
These parents, he explains, do not want “to end up with positive children and be forced to isolate themselves for the holidays.”
“They do the math,” adds Bowles, who is also president of the Federation of Private Educational Institutions. In case of direct contact, a child should be isolated until Christmas, at least.
Quick tests before the holidays
As of Wednesday, December 15, 1,358 schools had at least one active case of COVID-19, or 43% of schools. Thus, 235 schools were added in barely a week.
In this context, the end of the year looks like a race against time for the school service centers in Quebec. Time is running out: across the province, kits containing five rapid tests that the government wants to send to 625,000 elementary school children by the holidays must be distributed.
In some school service centers, such as the one in Pointe-de-l’Île, in Montreal, they have already been sent to families through the children. In other schools, they are still expected.
“We have not yet received the rapid tests to distribute to students, we are hopeful of being able to give them to your children by Friday,” writes the management of a primary school in the metropolis.
The distribution will continue until Friday, the last day of school, explains the Montreal School Service Center.
At the Navigators’ school service center, on the South Shore of Quebec, they will arrive in families “just in time” for the leave which begins in a week, says its spokesperson Marie-Ève Fortin.
Wednesday afternoon, we expected a new delivery of nearly 10,000 boxes including five tests each. Delivery to schools is expected to end on Thursday.
3 million
Number of rapid tests that must be distributed to elementary school students by the holiday break