Scan of COVID education strategies highlights Ford and Lecce's lack of recovery plan: NDP

QUEEN'S PARK — Ontario NDP Education critic Marit Stiles made this statement following the release of a pan-Canadian scan by People for Education on governments' education policies in response to COVID-19:

"Ontario families and children have endured over two years of upheaval, isolation and loss. The impacts to kids' mental, emotional, and academic health are immense, and we are far from out of the woods.

Ontario has had more school shut-down days than any other jurisdiction in North America. As People for Education's pan-Canadian survey reveals, the government of Ontario has initiated no vision and provided zero guidelines to assess and address the effects of the pandemic on students.

Legislative efforts to address this, like my bill to establish a COVID-19 Child and Youth Recovery Action Plan, have been stymied at every turn.

People for Education has laid out recommendations for how provinces should work with school boards and education workers to develop recovery and renewal plans backed by data, and measured by specific goals to address inequities that have made the pandemic harder on some families, and some students, than others.

Doug Ford and Steven Lecce have failed to provide a vision or resources for evaluating how our children are doing and how we can help them recover. The Ford government must stop ignoring the plight of families and invest in helping our children get back on track."