2,200 teachers needed for increased enrolment in virtual school

BY PAUL JUNOR

As schools reopen across the province, and over two million students in 72 boards prepare for schooling, it is obvious that it will not be an easy transition.

The Ministry of Education has given permission to boards to stagger start days as they wrestle with the challenges of scheduling students for remote learning. Many boards in the Greater Toronto Area were able to open by Tuesday, September 14^th, 2020. Larger boards such as the: Peel District School Board, Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board, and the Toronto District School Board have had to delay their start day for students who opt for online learning through virtual school.

The Ministry of Education in its back-to-school plan released on July 30^th, 2020 had given parents the options to either having their children taught in-person or through remote (distance) learning. The second option necessitates that boards enrol students in Virtual School at the elementary and secondary levels.

The Ministry of Education mandated that students engage in a minimum of 300 minutes of remote learning per day according to its Policy/ Program Memorandum No.164, which was released on August 13^th, 2020 to all school boards. It specifies that remote learning include synchronous and asynchronous learning. Synchronous learning occurs face-to face in real time and “It helps teachers to provide immediate feedback to students and enables students to interact with one another.” Asynchronous learning, which does not occur face-to-face in real time, “May involve students watching pre-recorded video lessons, completing assigned tasks, or contributing to online discussion boards.”

Peel District School Board (as reported by CBC News on Sunday, September 13^th, 2020) in a letter to families indicated that 1,000 students have switched from in-person to online learning. This has resulted in approximately 64,000 students who will not be in school. This has posed challenges for the board with respect to staffing and time tabling students and has led to postponement in its start date for virtual school.

The letter states, “Due to this recent increase in online enrolment, we require additional time to staff online classes and reconfigure timetables to ensure an equitable and successful start for all staff and students online.” The board plans to start live online classes on Monday, September 21^st  for elementary students and on Tuesday, September 22^nd for secondary students.

The Toronto District School Board has had significant challenges. A letter written by its Interim Director, Carlene Jackson to staff on Saturday, September 11^th, 2020, indicated that Virtual School for elementary and secondary students will commence on Thursday, September 17^th, 2020 due to the enrolment of over 60,000 students.

In a follow up letter to parents/guardians on Monday, September 14^th, 2020, she indicated that there had been changes. The letter states,

“Since that decision was made the number of families choosing the Virtual School has continued to grow largely from families switching from in-person learning. Between Tuesday of last week and today, we have gone from approximately 66,000 students to 72,000 students in the Virtual School resulting in the addition of more than 200 virtual classrooms-all requiring a teacher. With the number expected to grow, we have made the difficult decision to once again postpone the first day of Virtual School to Tuesday, September 22^nd, 2020 to allow time to finish the staffing and timetabling process.”

Unfortunately, on Tuesday TDSB’s spokesperson, Ryan Bird reported that 350 teachers are still needed as there has been a total of 78,000 students enrolled in online learning. He stated, “We have never done anything like this on this scale, and I would argue probably haven’t done it in public education across Ontario or Canada to this level.”

There is much hope that all the 2,200 teachers required will be hired.