Teachers to resume duties remotely next week

Teachers may soon be working remotely with students who volunteer to participate. 

Schools were closed on March 20 in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Assistant Deputy Minister Clint Repski said as of this coming Monday "it is expected that there will be connections with students and the development of learning opportunities available for students and teachers will also commence."

During a teleconference Repski said they have created a framework that is broad enough that the 27 school divisions can deliver multiple modes of instruction to students.

"This includes everything from paper to phone calls to the online environment," he said. "And schools and staff are in the best position to determine those pieces.

"We've been talking a lot in the education sector about let's pay attention to the person, to the whole child. Let's make sure their needs are met first."

When contacted, officials from the Regina public and Catholic and the Saskatoon Public school divisions said they were aware of the directive, but could not comment on the matter as they themselves were preparing information and content for staff. 

"Next week, we'll start to implement the supplemental learning plans being developed by our staff, with the guidance of the education sector response planning team," an email from the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division said.

"Almost all staff will continue to work from home next week, and we must adhere to provincial restrictions about physical distancing and size of gatherings/meetings." 

Like the other divisions, the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division's email said more information would be available next week.

Supplementary learning, grade improvement offered 

While it was previously announced that students who were failing would be passed, the remote learning opportunity is available on a voluntary basis according to the memo, and would provide them an opportunity to improve their marks.

"Students will be invited to continue learning; however, if they and their families choose not
to, they will be assigned their grade as of March 13, 2020," the memo said.

The memo said grades are to be grouped together in the process. Prekindergarten will be its own program; kindergarten through Grade 3 students will be placed together.

Grades 4 to 6, 7 to 9 and 10 to 12 will be grouped together. The memo said plans for Grades 10 to 12 were addressed first, with plans for the other groups to follow.

Every grade will have "areas of focus and guidance," including supplemental learning opportunities, assessment and communications among others.

The statement from Repski said the government is still exploring its emergency planning and school divisions would be updated with more information when it's available.

'Mixed-bag' approach expected: STF 

Patrick Maze, president of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF), said teachers in the province are somewhat excited to get back to what they do and they don't want to see students fall behind in their learning due to the pandemic. 

He said the STF knows school divisions are taking a "mixed-bag approach" to what's going to be offered to students. 

Some, he said, are still giving teachers time to prepare different kinds of resources to deliver to students who might not be able to access online instructions, while others are asking teachers to prepare those materials immediately.

"Things aren't going to be perfect right off the start, but everybody's working hard and trying to meet student's needs, as best possible," Maze said. 

Maze said he doesn't expect many teachers are quite prepared yet and said it's going to be a difficult situation and said more of the "fine details" would be available next week.

But teachers, he said, already provide many different delivery modes in the way they instruct, and individual school divisions along with the STF are providing them with resources to get them up and running.