Schools re-opening to be staggered over one week period

Education Minister
Jennifer Whiteside

For some students the Holidays end on January 3rd, for others it's another week away from studies as British Columbia introduces a staggered return to school in 2022, part of the province's approach to the rising case count of the Omicron variant.

Public Health Officer Doctor Bonnie Henry, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside laid out the revised School plan for the start of 2022 as part of a Wednesday information session that relayed the latest data on COVID infections, vaccination rates and testing protocols.

For the Education component of the session, Ms. Whiteside outlined a two tiered return to school for students During this time. 

Schools will be open for students whose parents work in the health care system and for students with exceptional needs who return on the third of January with the remaining youngsters to return on the 10th.

Other measures include maximizing space between people, enforcement of mask wearing and a pause of extracurricular sports tournaments to name a few, the full list available below.

More on the Ministry of Education plans can be explored here.

Local School Districts will also be revising their back to school plans and making changes as local situations may warrant, as well as to advise their parent communities on the staggered approach in the District or Independent Schools.

The BCTF was quick in response to the new approach for the new year, hailing some of the points made during the information session, while continuing to advocated for measures they had called for earlier in the day.

The full information session from this afternoon can be viewed below:

Update: the full data review for Wednesday, December 29th is now available here, a review of the previous updates is available from our archive. 

More notes on Education can be explored here.