Ontario to require school boards to offer remote learning option for one more year
Published February 17, 2022 at 1:38 pm
TORONTO — Ontario will require school boards to offer virtual learning as an option for one more school year.
Government officials say they are making investments to make schools safe for in-person learning, but given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, they want to offer parents one more year of choice.
The province is announcing its funding amounts for the next school year today, including $26.1 billion to school boards amounting to $13,059 per student, an increase from the previous year.
Ontario is also putting $175 million to tutoring programs to address impacts of the pandemic on learning, $25 million to reading intervention programs, $15 million to summer programs, and an additional $10 million for mental health promotion.
As well, the province said standardized EQAO tests will resume for Grades 3 and 6, and those results will form a new baseline against which to measure targets.
Some school boards had asked the province’s permission to cancel the Grade 9 math assessment this year, but the government said that making the test digital gives students greater flexibility in writing it, so it is the expectation that boards will offer that test this year.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2022.
The Canadian Press
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