Proper planning required for the COVID-19 classroom
Amid all the uncertainty, disruption, and fear wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is one point upon which we can all agree: we must get our children back in school, and do it in a way that is safe for all concerned.
We believe the province’s plan, announced last Thursday, is a good start. It is a complicated and ambitious endeavor, and a great deal of work has gone into the document. However, some crucial issues remain unresolved.
While the Education Ministry wisely relied on the comprehensive report led by The Hospital for Sick Children, it is now time to consult our frontline pediatricians. After all, if children show signs of COVID-19, we are the health care professionals in the community who parents call first.
As frontline community pediatricians, we directly see the impact of children being out of the classroom. Our patients display greater anxiety, more behavioral problems, and increased medical issues such as weight gain. The damage is aggravated for those with special needs, or who come from marginalized communities. We see parents with elevated stress levels as they struggle to cope.
They now face further stresses as they decide whether it is safe to send their children back to school.
We know the measures that are effective in controlling the spread of the coronavirus, because they have worked in other countries like Denmark. We hope Ontario follows similar protocols.
It appears the ministry is appropriately enacting strict screening procedures to prevent symptomatic individuals from entering school, and providing funding for rapid, effective testing and contact tracing when potential infections appear.
We agree with the requirement for face masks, with exemptions for younger children, and we trust that frequent hand washing will be demanded.
Some questions remain. Will elementary schools be able to provide sufficient physical distancing? We know from our local schools that classes of 23 students or more are common. It may be difficult if not impossible to maintain a bubble of one metre. What about cramped, poorly ventilated portables? It would also be helpful to hear more details on the use of outdoor classrooms when weather permits.
We have been fortunate to date in not seeing large numbers of Ontario children infected, but this is a new virus and our knowledge remains preliminary. Yes, there is evidence that younger children are less likely to become sick or spread the disease, but we should take note of a recent study from South Korea which indicated that those over the age of 10 can spread the coronavirus as much as adults — all the more reason to be concerned about class sizes for elementary school students in that age range.
We are not experts in educational funding, but we feel it is imperative that schools receive all the resources they need in a timely manner. Half measures could be disastrous.
As Dr. Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization has said, the most important prerequisite for opening schools is to suppress the virus. The numbers in Ontario are encouraging, but in a vast province like ours, the rate of community spread has varied from community to community, so the same standards should not be imposed everywhere.
We must be alert, nimble, and flexible. If there is an outbreak somewhere, as is likely, we must act quickly and decisively to isolate the infected and adjust the teaching model in the affected community.
The urgent task of safely returning two million Ontario students to their classrooms must be a partnership. Pediatricians have always played a central role in children’s wellbeing. As proud representatives of community pediatricians in the province, the Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario stands ready to advise and collaborate with parents, the province, educators, and public health policy makers.
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