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13 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,M ay 20,2021 theifp.ca 905-877-0596 330 GUELPH ST., GEORGETOWN (opposite Canadian Tire)www.millersscottishbakery.com MILLER'S ScottISh BakERy MILLER'S ScottISh BakERy British Style Meats, Groceries, Sweets & More! We carry TESCO products, jewellery, British gifts, publications and more. More imported Cheeses have arrived! Stock Up for the Victoria Day Long Weekend! Tues & Sat 9:30-6,Wed-Fri 10-6:30, CLOSED Sun May 23 & Mon May 24 ADAMS WINDOW CLEANING & HOME MAINTENANCE Eavestrough Cleaning/ Deck & Fence Repair Phone • Appointment • Social Distance Compliant 647.624.8755 www.http://adamswindowcleaning.ca Open for Business sponsibility of creating and managing online courses away from local school boards and put it in the hands of TVO, ex- plained Halton Hills trust- ee Jeanne Gray during a virtual community town hall hosted by trustees of the Halton District School Board on May 13. "In Halton, we already have a well-developed in- frastructure and a signifi- cant level of expertise to of- fer asynchronous online learning," said Gray. Under the province's plan, school boards would also be mandated to pro- vide connectivity and tech resources, plus space and supervision for TVO on- line learners who wish to pursue remote learning but within a brick-and- mortar setting. Schools would receive neither additional staff for supervision purposes nor provincial funding for re- mote learners registered with TVO. Online learn- ers, however, would have the option of participating in a school's extracurricu- lar activities, breakfast and school lunch pro- grams and mental health services. "They're not really our students but we're provid- ing for them as if they were," commented Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Board Association. Halton student trustee Vandy Widyalankara raised concerns about the lack of student consulta- tion in the plan's develop- ment, and the potential negative impact on student mental health through vir- tual learning. "Essentially, the Minis- try (of Education) is treat- ing our education more like a business plan, in which eLearning will di- vert funding from school boards so that they can market the courses both provincially and out of province as their plan states," said Widyalanka- ra. "Make no mistake about it, this decision is, in many ways, the first step towards the privatization of public education." Student trustees across the province are not in sup- port of the government's plan because it does not value or prioritize the suc- cess and well-being of the biggest and arguably the most important education stakeholder -- students, Widyalankara said. Abraham said there is a place for online learning in public education, but it doesn't make sense to rein- vent the wheel. "It seems like an unnec- essary expense of time and money to not just take it out of the hands of school boards but to have another non-education-based enti- ty develop that which we've already done effec- tively," said Abraham. Parents expressed con- cern about overloading staff like special education teachers and teacher li- brarians with supervision duties. They also had ques- tions about the difference between HDSB's current virtual learning model and TVO's. With a third-party pro- vider and course creator, there will be a lack of over- sight to ensure courses of- fered have the necessary rigour and alignment to the Ontario curriculum, said Oakville trustee Joan- na Oliver. Options for secondary school students will be narrowed, said Abraham. "As soon as you start taking kids out of schools, we have less ability to offer programming for the kids that are in the schools." Ontario already boasts a world-class education system, "and it is so frus- trating to see that during a pandemic this is happen- ing, that the government has decided to move for- ward with something that there's no evidence that this is good for student achievement and well-be- ing," said HDSB chair An- drea Grebenc. An opportunity exists during the pandemic to re- trieve year-over-year re- mote learning data and make evidence-based deci- sions, added Grebenc. "It feels like there's a train already heading down the tracks and we have to be on it whether we like it or not," said Gre- benc. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: The province is considering not only mak- ing online learning a per- manent part of the educa- tion system, but having a third-party entity deliver this programming. We wanted to see how local trustees felt about this proposed plan. NEWS Continued from page 3 PLAN A STEP TOWARD PRIVATIZING EDUCATION: STUDENT TRUSTEE Virtual learning may become a permanent part of the Ontario education system. Graham Paine/Metroland