The resumption of virtual classes for the schools of the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), which was to take place on January 4, has been postponed until Wednesday, January 5, according to information which has just been sent to the parents of students by email.
“Distance education services will begin on Wednesday January 5 for all regular CSSDM schools, according to the guidelines prescribed by the Ministry (minimum thresholds for educational services). The schedules and the meeting links for each group will be transmitted by the holder. To this will be added various supports for certain pupils ”, indicates for example the direction of the primary school Saint-Gérard, in the district Villeray.
Other institutions, including Joseph-François Perrault high school, in the Saint-Michel district, point out that students who need a computer to lend them can come and pick it up on Monday afternoon or Tuesday.
This postponement will also allow, according to what the management of the Face school in the city center, “to grant a little more preparation time to the team of teachers for distance education”.
Recall that the provincial government announced on December 30 that the return of elementary and secondary school students face-to-face in classrooms was postponed to January 17 across Quebec, as well as that of CEGEP and university students.
In some schools, the distribution of computer equipment to students could be done before the holidays, notes Sylvain Mallette, president of the Autonomous Federation of Education.
“The goal was to make sure that environments could quickly switch to virtual education,” he says. But there may be problems, for example in disadvantaged areas, where there are also issues of internet connections. ”
Mr. Mallette also underlines that distance education is far from being a panacea, and that it can cause learning delays among young people, since the teacher can more difficult identify a student who does not understand his explanations. .
More details to come.