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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, M ay 27 ,2 02 1 | 14 1276 Cornwall Road, Unit C, Oakville Ontario, L6J 7W5 T: 905-845-0767 • F: 905-845-5552 •www.haxelllaw.com • lawyers@haxelllaw.com Personal Professional Service at Competitive Rates Buying? Selling? Re Call us for a quote at 905-845-0767 ext. 223Jameson Glas GOLDGOLD 905-845-0767 ext. 223Jameson Glas Repair or replace we've got it • Large stock in our warehouse • Complete turnkey installs • Factory trained Technicians • Repair parts on our trucks • Your one stop pool heater shop • Repairs to all makes & models905-845-0701 POOL HEATER ** 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 -- in Oakville, across the region and throughout Ontario -- would receive neither ad- ditional staff for supervi- sion purposes nor provin- cial funding for remote learners registered with TVO. Online learners, however, would have the option of participating in a school's extracurricular activities, breakfast and school lunch programs 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. Oakville 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 nar- rowed, 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 sys- tem, "and it is so frustrat- ing to see that during a pan- demic this is happening, that the government has decided to move forward with something that there's no evidence that this is good for student achieve- ment and well-being," said HDSB chair Andrea Gre- benc. 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 "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." - HDSB Chair Andrea Grebenc SCAN FOR MORE Scan this code for more local news.