(file photo/CKOM News Staff)

By CKOM News Staff

back to school

Saskatchewan schools to reopen in the fall for 2020-21 school year

Jun 9, 2020 | 3:01 PM

Students and staff members are to be going back to school in Saskatchewan in the fall.

In a media release Tuesday, Education Minister Gordon Wyant announced in-person classes are to resume in prekindergarten to Grade 12 schools in the 2020-21 school year.

Wyant is holding a media conference to discuss the province’s decision at 2:30 p.m. It can be heard live here.

Schools in the province were closed March 20 as part of the government’s response to COVID-19. Classes then were offered remotely to provide instruction to students.

On May 7, it was announced that schools physically would remain closed for the rest of the 2019-20 school year. Teachers continued to lead classes virtually for students who wanted to keep learning.

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The plan now is for schools to open as early as Sept. 1, based on the plans of individual school divisions.

“Reopening schools is a significant milestone for our province, and an important step for families to get back to a new normal,” Wyant said in the media release. “Thank you to the teachers and staff for the tremendous job they have done connecting with their students while in-class learning has been suspended.”

The government noted that while the plan is for students and staff to return to the classroom, contingency plans will be put in place in case there’s an increased risk of transmission that would mean in-class learning can’t start, either regionally or provincially.

As early as next week, the Ministry of Education is to distribute public health guidelines that currently are being developed with the help of the province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab.

The province’s Education Response Planning Team — which includes representatives from the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the Saskatchewan School Boards Association — is to provide guidance to school divisions throughout the reopening process.