Staff and students will be returning to classrooms in September for the 2020-21 school year, and the province and school divisions are working on details of exactly what the return to school will look like.
School have been closed in the province since March 20 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Government of Saskatchewan has now released the guidelines for primary and secondary education institutions to reopen throughout the province.
With the difficulty of following the two metre physical distancing recommendations—especially with younger students—on a daily basis in school, the Government of Saskatchewan based the guidelines focus around sanitation and minimizing physical contact.
These guidelines are broadened to apply to every school reopening in Saskatchewan and will be adjusted by each school division to fit the situation within their system and then adjusted again by each individual school within the division to fit their own needs.
The guidelines released by the Government of Saskatchewan last week focus on proper hygiene, limiting of physical contact, cleaning and sanitization, and illness care, while the school divisions are currently working to put together more specific guidelines that apply to transportation, nutrition programs, mental health, students with intensive needs, and any curriculum changes that might need to be made to ensure health and safety protocols can be followed.
Deputy Minister of Education Rob Currie says the Response Planning Team worked together to come up with the guidelines for each school divisions return.
“The groups responsible and involved in the construct (of the guidelines) included the chief medical officers office, the Ministry of Health and then within the education sector we had five groups, the Saskatchewan school boards, Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, Saskatchewan Association of School Business Officials, LEADS (League of Educational Administrators Directors and Superintendents), and the Ministry of Education,” said Currie. “This group made up what’s called the Response Planning Team.
“The Response Planning Team gave shape and voice of a construct of what’s needed in terms of helping schools be safe learning environments and we established the guidelines.”
The guidelines the Response Planning Team worked on are now being adjusted by each school division in the province before they go through final adjustments by each school to fit their situation.
“We wanted and needed to have the local ability to utilize these guidelines in a way that allowed for the uniqueness of each area,” he said. “They take the guidelines—we have 27 school divisions in our province—they then make them real within their school settings.
“The school divisions right now are crafting a plan, with the information we know today, that will be a template for each individual school within that school division. The school divisions templates are structured based on these guidelines then the individual schools use the school divisions approach to make those guidelines become real within their unique individual settings.”
The template guidelines that each school division puts together will then be approved by the ministry, says Currie.
“Each school division will be submitting their plan to the Ministry of Education by the end of June,” he said. “Then the ministry will review those plans to ensure that we have addressed the guidelines as they were intended and to speak on any gaps in plans to ensure the safe return of students and staff in the fall when they resume school. The ministry will then continue its work (during the school year) to ensure that the guidelines are part of the school division’s planning and practice. We will also continue to work with the Response Planning Team to give voice to what’s needed to ensure everything needed is put in place. We look forward to the start of school. Returning to school doesn’t necessarily mean returning to normal because we’re in a different environment right now. We look forward to the school divisions creating an environment where there’s hope and safety for our students and staff.”
