Child-minding has started up in School District 69 (Qualicum) for essential workers, and remote learning is expected to start up on April 15.
SD69 superintendent Keven Elder said how schooling will work will differ between elementary and high school students. Parents will not be homeschooling their elementary-aged children, but rather implementing ways to keep up literacy and numeracy.
Last week, teachers reached out to families to figure out what their individual needs were. Not all students have access to technology and parents have differing abilities and availability while at home with their child.
“We’re quite sensitive to the equity issue and not expecting everybody to do everything,” he said. “They’ll work with what they have access to at home and for some that might be fairly limited.”
READ MORE: COVID-19: School District 69 to develop ways for teachers to connect with parents after spring break
For the high school students, Elder said many are focusing on a couple of courses that may be relevant to their post-secondary plans. Students who are set to graduate still will and Elder said how students will approach the remainder of the school year is on a case-by-case basis.
“It’s going to be based on what priorities the students have for learning between now and the end of June because we won’t be able to continue with the full, robust offering of courses,” he said. “We just have to see what the most important things are for the individual students.”
The other main update from the district has been the implementation of childminding at a local elementary school for essential workers. They have 15 students and expect to move up to 24 next week. Local education assistants accepted the request — something Elder said the district is grateful for. But Elder reminds parents that this isn’t school.
“It’s not going for school, it’s going for child-minding with whatever learning has been set up for them for their home would just be happening at the school instead.”
