NSTU seeks clarity following weekend memo from Education Department

N.S. parents tracking COVID-19 infections Contact tracing has ended in Nova Scotia schools but parents are tracking infections with an online tool. Natasha Pace has more.

It’s been one week since public school students in Nova Scotia returned to in-person learning. With the province deciding to end contact tracing in schools, the group Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education has created an online tool where people can report a COVID-19 case.

"It has been very busy,” said Stacey Rudderham, co-chair of the group Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education.

“There have been a lot of people coming to the tool and reporting their child's case or theirs, sometimes it might be staff members that are reporting their own case. It's open to anyone in a public school in Nova Scotia to report."

Rudderham said more than 400 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the last week through the new online tool.

"Only a few of those are PCR tests, so only a few of those school cases are included in the numbers that the province is providing in their daily numbers so it is concerning,” said Rudderham.

While parents try to track COVID-19 cases, the Nova Scotia Teachers Union is working to clarify a memo that was sent by the Department of Education over the weekend.

"I think one of the reasons this memo touched a nerve was that the fear of the unknown,” said Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union.

The memo, sent Saturday evening, thanked everyone for a successful first week of in-person learning.

Part of the memo read: “teachers are asked to make work and assignments available to families whose children are home at this time.”

That’s something Wozney said teachers were already doing before the pandemic.

"If this turns out to be no more or no less of a burden for teachers, then it is outside the pandemic, then it's not a thing. Right, there's nothing to be worried about,” said Wozney.

“Teachers have proven to be able to manage that in the past and they will be able to manage it now. However, we know anecdotally from across the province attendance is continuing to nose dive day by day by day as more and more parents opt to keep their kids at home."

Nova Scotia’s minister of education and early childhood development declined a request for an interview with CTV News Monday.

In a statement, Becky Druhan said in part: “the overall goal of the memo was to ensure consistency across the province in ensuring that all students who are absent from school have access to learning materials and assignments.”

Druhan goes on to say: “the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is not asking teachers to prepare different/additional materials or introduce a hybrid learning model.”