The Reopening of Schools Amid COVID-19 – The Parent’s Choice

On July 31^st, 2020 the Ontario Ministry of Education announced that parents could choose between sending their children to school in the fall or in the alternative to school children from remote locations.

COVID-19 has truly affected our positive outlook towards our education system. There has been much research that projects that the closure of schools has created an achievement gap. Parents continue to remain the authoritative decision makes in this complex battle of whether or not it is in the best interest to send children back to school.

Parents should take into account the liberty of these children and seek their intentions before they make affirmed decisions. As much time we want away from our children for date nights our children need that time away from us. Running wild on playgrounds and being true.

Parents must make cautions decisions but remember to keep their children’s interests and views in mind. With authorities announcing a potential fall COVID-19 wave it will be interesting to see how many Ontarians decide to set up leaning groups from home.

Maybe parents can have peers meet up in a limited group setting and use the online tools together? Or in the alternative seek the services of a private teacher and split the costs.

We need to remember this is not the time to think of what is best for our schedule, parents need to act in the best interests of the children and create an alluring learning environment to ensure academic achievements continue and the gap in educational achievement decreases over the fall months.

It will be interesting to see how many parents will withdraw their children and continue their studies from remote locations. Or how many of these parents will opt to open their own educational centres.

What about low-income families. The Ministry of Education seems to have missed the mark on this one. With the internet being so expensive, high-speed internet is required for good quality streaming.

With educational institutions creating a movement towards online learning does this mean the internet now is a necessity? If so, how will low-income families be able to login and teach their children at a sufficient pace? With this new wave of increase in technological gadgets should the system not be responsible for ensuring that everyone has equal access since they are the ones who initiated this movement?

We need to retract back and provide services for all families to ensure that children from whatever background are provided at the same level of access to education.

This triggers a shared responsibility to think about every child and how having access to the internet and using it is now a necessity more so than ever.

Let us not forget, we are all equal, we should help in accommodating each other during these tough times. Teach yourself to respect the decisions parents are making even while you may not see eye-to-eye with their choices. Everyone is just trying to figure things out.

Sabeeya Akram is a family lawyer at AYOUN LAW. She is a new mother and understands the true struggle of raising children and having to work from home during the Pandemic. Ms. Akram has been co-editor to leading publications for academic research and is often invited to provide feedback for academic works.

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