STF hopes teacher health and safety taken into consideration when school reopening plans are announced

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation is following on the heels of the provincial NDP, calling for a safe and cautious return to schools eventually.

While STF President Patrick Maze didn’t mention the need for additional teachers, he did speak about a potential increase in teacher workloads, especially if students are given a choice of whether to return full-time, part-time, or to remain at home and engage in online learning.

His understanding is that at this point, schools have been asked to prepare for a few different scenarios.

“We are always concerned about the intensification of teacher work loads. We know that teachers have done a wonderful job in getting some of their materials online and providing some kind of emergency online instruction to students… a concern we’re hearing is that if classrooms are half full and teachers are still also expected to provide online instruction to students, then effectively they’re kind of doing two jobs at once.”

Another big concern centres around teachers who have underlying health conditions, or live with others who have health issues – and whether they’re going to be expected to return to classrooms.

“In a normal environment they’re fine to go to work but due to different health reasons, going back to work when there’s a pandemic going on is not a safe situation for them personally or for their own family. They don’t want to be carrying the virus back to their family as well. So, we have heard lots of concerns.”

He maintains as well that it’s the responsibility of the employer to provide personal protective equipment, enough of it, and to ensure adequate cleaning/sanitizing takes place regularly. He said the province has so far done a good job of being cautious, and hopes it continues – especially given information that a ‘second wave’ could occur in the fall.

At a daily news conference Thursday, Premier Scott Moe hinted that more information on schools and the potential for reopening would be released next week.