I’m a teacher in Saskatchewan and my provincial government is trying to send me back to work to
- a room crowded full with the normal number of kids
- a building with 100s of people using the same few toilets
- with no safety measures in place
- and no extra funding to make it safe
I want to go back to work. I agree with public health officials that it would be better for kids’ mental health to be at school rather than stuck at home. But that’s not why the government is doing this.
If they cared about student mental health, they wouldn’t cut budgets every year, and fight against teachers tooth-and-nail when we fight to fund lower class sizes and more student supports. If they cared, they would give the funding to drastically reduce class sizes, and hire more cleaners, caretakers, etc, so we can do this safely.
And it’s not gonna be good for the kids’ education or mental health if they get sick, or they get their parents and grandparents sick, and the outbreak intensifies – all because of reopening schools this way.
I want to do my part for society in this pandemic. Nurses and doctors and grocery store workers and many others have done their part. But nurses and doctors get to enforce health protocols in their space, and they get to conduct a lot of their appointments by phone. Grocery stores control the number of customers who come in the store, put up a plexiglass barrier at checkout, staff extra people to sanitize carts, etc. But teachers and students get tossed into a crowded room of 30 kids?
What did teachers and students do to make the government toss us into the fire? The truth is, this is happening to us – and to the kids – because we fought hard for education funding against a government that hates teachers unions and wants to privatize education.
The truth is we’re not being sent back to work for the sake of kids – it’s happening because the Saskatchewan Party wants to win cheap political points by putting on a false show of “reopening” without spending money. They want to show they can push teachers around, and we’re powerless.
And the worst part is it will quickly turn chaotic as classes are sent home to quarantine, as people start getting sick, etc. So it’s not even real.
I am thinking: if they don’t care enough about me, OR the students, to fund this and make it safe, why should I go back to work? I have the right to refuse unsafe work. Why would I put myself and my family in harm’s way, for a song-and-dance “reopening” spectacle, to help the Saskatchewan Party, who is treating me and my students like dirt?
~ A teacher
AGREED!!! And this is not just a Saskatchewan problem, this is a Manitoba problem, an Ontario problem, a BC problem, an Alberta problem – basically everywhere in Canada!
and get out there and start back to school shopping will ya?!
Is there at least funds set aside by the government in case of class action lawsuits due to unsafe work/ class conditions and a breach of basic OHS standards for both staff and students during a pandemic? Or should there be new contract negotiations for staff during covid which changes the job expectations? Should the education act be altered because the rights and safety of students act are currently being violated under the current act?
This country was not built by entitled people like you maybe taxpayers should buy you a one way ticket to a country where things are perfect
Blow it out your arse, Barry. This country was built by people fighting like hell to improve things against entrenched interests. Nice SaskTel email address: built through struggle, not handouts!
This situation is NOT restricted to Saskatchewan, or Canada.
It is certainly relevant to the U.K. – where class sizes tend to higher numbers – I have taught in Saskatchewan and the U.K. so am familiar with systems in both.
The problems you outline are broadly similar in both areas.In the U.K. there tends to be much more public, government and media criticism of the profession itself but in both cases little or no attention is directed to changing demographics or the importance of workplace environment and a there is a failure to realise the importance of these and their significance. Of course looking after these will cost a great deal and that is the perennial problem of short sighted thinking – critical and long term planning is almost unknown.