Today, Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s Minister of Education, issued the following statement regarding March break:
“In support of our collective efforts to keep schools safe, we are postponing March break until April 12-16, 2021. This decision was made with the best advice of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and public health officials, including consultations with many local Medical Officers of Health.
“Many students have been learning remotely since the start of 2021. It is critical we follow public health advice to protect schools and avoid a repeat of the concerning spike in youth-related cases over the winter break, when students and staff were out of schools for a prolonged period of time. We are taking this precaution based on advice from health experts, including the province’s Science Table and the Chief Medical Officer of Health, to help protect against the emerging COVID-19 variants of concern.
“We appreciate the hard work of students and staff in the education sector and I want to be clear: March break is being postponed, not cancelled. To keep schools open, we must keep them free of COVID-19. The actions announced today serve to limit opportunities for congregation—while reaffirming the evidence that schools are safe for students. By continuing to follow public health advice, and by introducing additional safety measures and more testing, we are supporting our collective efforts to keep COVID-19 from entering our schools.
“With respect to travel, our government’s position on this is unchanged. Ontarians should refrain from travelling, particularly given the increase in new variants that pose a direct risk to our country. Please stay at home as much as possible and continue following the direction of public health officials so that we can keep schools open and protect our seniors, frontline health workers and all families.
“These decisions—based on the advice of medical experts—are never easy, but they are necessary to keep Ontario families safe.”
March break was scheduled to take place March 15-19.
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brian tapley says
From a tourism business point of view I would respectfully suggest that March Break be totally and permanently cancelled.
Replace it with 5 long weekends in late Jan and (with the existing Family Day weekend) make every weekend in Feb. a long weekend.
Yes, it would require a little juggling of schedules but think of it this way.
1 If your objective is to “improve” tourism potential IN ONTARIO this would put people out and about when the winter conditions are good for winter sports, be it snowmobiline, skiing, skating, … anything!.
2 It would be a great time to have the community winter festivals… again with the probability of real snow.
3 It would provide a nice weekly break for families
4 It would not change the school instructional days at all.
5 It is quite unlikely that tourists from Ontario would go to far off places like the Caribbean, Mexico, or even Florida for a three day weekend so the money will be spent more locally to benefit more Canadian businesses. Help your neighbor sort of idea.
6 Expense and hassle of plane travel would be reduced and this would not just help with things like the Covid virus (which is likely to become a permanent fixture of our lives forever into the future in one way or another.) It would also reduce carbon emissions by reducing the total number of plane sorties too.
Generally all good things for our mental outlook and our pocket books and the countries trade balance and easily done with just a stroke of a legislative pen, no major costs.
While we are on the topic, how about we adjust the length of the school day and put teachers PD days together at the beginning and end of the school year such that the summer holiday, instead of being 10 weeks with the rare 11 week version, actually was a consistent 12 weeks every year?? With climate warming effects, the last week of June and the first of Sept are quite seasonably nice now compared to even just 50 years ago.
A bit more of a juggle for this one but it too has advantages.\
1 reduced school costs by a roughly two week longer summer shut down of full student activities.
2 reduced busing costs.
3 No instructional hours lost if you add about just 10 minutes to each school day.
4 No existing holidays lost.
5 Instead of disrupting schooling with PD days at random over the year they could all be bunched at the beginning and end of the school year when the teachers have to be there anyway to finish or prepare for the next instructional period
6 Tourism in general, not just resorts but everything that travelers do from meals to motels to attractions would all gain a theoretical nearly 15% on the existing summer season and these businesses would need to do little extra to gain from this extra time as they are currently already ready to be open at these times.
These simple changes would have a profound effect on the income of Canada’s tourism industry and cost us, as a country, next to nothing to do.
I don’t know about you but if I was in charge of schooling and was offered a way to reduce yearly costs, make everyone just as happy or more so, maintain all the instructional time we currently achieve and do it with no significant capital investment…. well it looks good to me.
Same with the Tourism ministry. If they could add that magic 15% yearly increase in business and do it with no grants, no capital projects, essentially just a change of the rules that is mostly an administrative functions that you are already paying for…. again it looks pretty good to me.
I’m sure there are going to be a few issues and there will be conservative, stuck in their ways, administrators but think about it. would it be good for you and your family?