The legacy of COVID: The ‘new normal’ at school and work

This week marks the five-year anniversary of COVID-19 arriving in Saskatchewan.

Public health measures starting being laid down, and within two weeks tens of thousands of people were working from home and schools were closing their doors.

Some of those changes have since been dropped – no one is following arrows down the grocery store aisles anymore, and plexiglass sheets no longer separate tables at restaurants – but some of the changes stuck around, or had consequences that are still being felt.

These days, children are back in classes but Regina Public School Division Director of Education Mark Haarmann called it a “new normal.”

He said classroom are larger and more complex than they were even five years ago. He said it’s a combination of a higher focus on mental health, but also kids having greater needs coming out of the pandemic.

“I think COVID brought about a reliance on devices. I think it created some separation between kids and families. I think it brought a new social dynamic into being,” explained Haarmann.

Mark Haarmann, director of education with Regina Public Schools, says the makeup of classrooms and the needs of students have changed since the COVID pandemic. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

“I think we’re seeing some of that in terms of kids having a greater preponderance of anxiety. We’re seeing a lot more in terms of depression, we’re seeing a lot more really extreme behaviours.”

He said the division also has a higher number of newcomers to Canada whose children not only need English as an additional language support but also often have learning challenges due to the situations they left.

Haarmann said nearly 40 per cent of the division’s students now have some sort of individualized education plan.

But, Haarmann said, funding since the pandemic has not kept up with those needs, and it’s something many divisions and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation have raised their voices about over the last several years.

Haarmann said he believes the renewed focus on mental health is one good thing that came out of the pandemic, bringing forward the importance of socialization and the role schools play in it.

School results

The pandemic also had an effect on how well kids were learning.

Before COVID, Haarmann said at the end of third grade about 68 per cent of the division’s students were reading at or above their grade level. During the pandemic, that dipped to about 58 per cent. He said now, five years later, the numbers have bounced back.

“That has come, really, through some very targeted and very specific work. We’ve been using things like the University of Florida literacy inventory in terms of some very specific teaching of the science of reading and basic phonetic skills being taught to kids, and that translating into other reading areas,” Haarmann explained.

Math results for kids also dipped during the pandemic and are still lagging behind a bit in the Regina Public division, but Haarmann said the division is going to continue its focus on literacy and numeracy, pointing out that reading ability is a strong predictor of future success.

Technology in education

Laptops, tablets and, in some cases, smartphones became essential to schools when they closed their doors and had kids learn from home. Now, five years later, any virtual classes are offered through the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre and all personal technology has been purged from classrooms.

Last year, the provincial government banned smartphones from classrooms, and Haarmann said he was concerned the change was going to end up being a mess. Instead, he said students and teachers have adjusted remarkably well.

“I think kids now appreciate coming to school and engaging, and I’m pleasantly surprised at how quickly and easily we transitioned this new model in September,” said Haarmann.

He said there are some lessons where teachers might wish kids had their own devices so they could do research themselves, but Haarmann said not having those devices gives the kids a chance to connect with others at school. He said it’s been positive for all involved.

Other school divisions have also said things are basically back to normal in their classrooms.

At work

While kids were sent home to learn algebra and social studies through a screen, adults around the province were told to do their work from home as well. If working from home wasn’t an option, myriad protections and rules criss-crossed nearly every workplace to stop the virus from spreading.

Now, the public health rules are gone, but some of the flexibility and changes have stuck around.

Greg Jacobs, external communications manager with SaskTel, says wireless traffic jumped 50 per cent in the first year of the pandemic. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Before the pandemic, just one per cent of SaskTel’s workforce took advantage of the company’s remote work policy. Now, Greg Jacobs, SaskTel’s external communications manager, said about a third of the company’s workforce works remotely either fully or on a part-time basis.

“It wasn’t normal for a lot of individuals to be working from home, but the pandemic shifted how a lot of businesses operated and really forced us to test what works and what doesn’t in a very tight time frame,” said Jacobs.

He said remote work is limited to those who don’t need constant interaction with others to do their jobs, and those who aren’t dealing with a lot of sensitive information.

The pandemic also changed how employees collaborate at SaskTel, according to Jacobs. The vast majority of SaskTel’s corporate meetings now happen remotely, but he said there are also fewer formal meetings and a lot more time just scheduled to discuss projects.

“It’s a little more organic, because we’ve instituted tools that make it easier for you to collaborate digitally – so corporately approved messaging apps, but also corporately approved video apps,” he explained.

But, Jacobs added, there’s also an understanding that some things are better in person. He said the employee tour has started again, with SaskTel’s president travelling to different hubs in the province to meet employees and listen the concerns in their areas. Jacobs said people seem to appreciate the opportunity to engage face to face.

In stores

As the telecom Crown corporation, SaskTel also has its public-facing side, with stores and technicians who go to people’s homes.

Jacobs said the stores had to make a lot of adjustments during the pandemic.

“We would sort of change our policies and our practices in stores to align with the provincial health directives,” he said.

At this point though, it’s basically back to normal.

Jacobs said there are a few changes that have lingered, like making sure hand sanitizer available to customers, and letting people wear masks if they choose.

He said the situation with installers is also almost back to normal, though he said there is an increased awareness of customers’ comfort levels.

“If a customer asks a technician to put on gloves or put on a mask, we would respectfully abide by their request,” said Jacobs.

The network

While dealing with its own changing workforce, SaskTel had to do a lot of work during the pandemic to make sure other people could also work from home.

Jacobs said the first month after the pandemic lockdown began, SaskTel saw a 15- to 20-per-cent jump in mobile data usage, and in the first year it increased by 50 per cent over the previous year.

“That’s a massive increase in our world, especially since it costs millions of dollars to construct the network, maintain it, enhance it, and importantly in this case, upgrade it,” he explained.

The increase didn’t subside, either. Between 2019 and the end of 2024, Jacobs said data usage has nearly tripled. SaskTel also saw a more modest increase in broadband and fibre internet usage, with traffic doubling between 2019 and 2024.

Jacobs said usage continues to increase, which shows the shift work has taken.

“We are becoming ever-increasingly reliant on digital connectivity and the networks that (SaskTel is) building,” he said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Jacobs said there were some capacity issues, especially on the wireless side where improving capacity means installing new equipment. He said the network wasn’t designed to handle that abrupt shift to much of the province working from home.

“We had to be creative in how we could adjust for that as much as possible,” he explained.

That change is part of the reason SaskTel is investing $1 billion into rural internet and 5G, said Jacobs.

He said SaskTel would have been investing in upgrades to wireless 5G anyway, but the company is also dramatically increasing the capacity of cell sites where they know there are capacity issues. And, he said, the company likely would have waited a few more years before pushing out the expansion of the fibre network as it has been doing recently.