Covid-19: Some school boards in Ontario still plan to keep virtual learning
Ontario: Virtual learning will be continued by several school boards in Ontario next year. These boards say that this learning will be different from the virtual learning conducted during the epidemic.
The Ottawa-Carlton District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Toronto District School Board will continue this remote learning in 2023-24.
The Durham, Peel and Lambton Kent District School Boards have also planned to continue virtual learning. For the coming year they are conducting surveys to ascertain the priorities of the families. This is being done to find out if families are still interested in it.
“There are 700 elementary students who want to do remote learning and 280 students are ready to study in secondary virtual school,” said Brendan Browne, director of education at the Toronto Catholic Board. He said that this demand still remains so we must make this offer. We want to reach out to every student. In February 2022, Ontario decided to provide virtual learning, but this decision has not yet been made for 2023-24.
The TDSB, however, is not waiting for this decision. Toronto Public Board spokesman Ryan Bird said he was aware that the TDSB and some other boards were moving forward with a virtual option this year as well. Meanwhile, there are several boards that are awaiting provincial guidance before drawing up their plans for the next year.
