Ontario's Schools Will Open Up For In-Person Learning Next Week

Students will get to hear their school bell ring in person soon because Ontario schools are going to reopen right on schedule next week.

Schools will reopen for in-person learning on January 17, Doug Ford's office confirmed to Narcity, just as the government promised.

Last week, the Ontario government said it would be delaying students' return to in-person learning in response to concerns of the highly transmissible Omicron variant in the province.

"Putting these targeted and time-limited measures in place will give us more opportunity to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians and ensure everyone has maximum protection against the virus," Ford said in the January 3 announcement.

Prior to the announcement, schools were originally set to reopen on January 3, but this was pushed back to January 5 in order to give them a chance to implement more health measures.

A government source previously told the Toronto Star that they could see high school students returning to school before elementary school students due to higher vaccination levels, which is no longer the case.

Some Ontario teacher's unions, like the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Foundation and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, wrote open letters to Ford expressing their frustration over the school closures and noting that the government failed students with its "last-minute decision making."

Narcity reached out to the minister of education's office for further comments but did not hear back before this article was published.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.