Funding plans announced last week to increase support for Alberta students in dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are both welcome and needed.
With the pandemic now nearing two years in length, the near-term affects on the education of students, and in particular those in the younger grades, is already being examined and considered.
As such, any and all efforts aimed at lessening the negative impacts of the pandemic on students in this region and across the province are good for the community-at-large, both today and down the road.
Whether the new supports will be enough to ensure students come out of the pandemic largely unscathed and ready to move ahead remains to be seen.
What is known is that those making the decisions today about what should be done to help students will ultimately be held responsible for the long-term outcomes.
For her part, Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange says the $45 million being provided to school authorities for targeted programming to enhance literacy and numeracy skills is a good step forward.
“This funding will support students who need extra help to improve their reading, writing and numeracy skills,” said LaGrange. “Many students have had their education disrupted during the pandemic.”
However, Opposition education critic Sarah Hoffman says regardless of the support announced last week, the UCP government continues to fail students and their families.
“This minister’s approach to supporting students during the pandemic has always been behind, always been the bare minimum, which she seems dragged to step up to, and it has resulted in school closures and chaos for classrooms,” said Hoffman.
Alberta students should and must be adequately supported to ensure any impacts of the pandemic on their respective educations are both short-term and temporary.
Make no mistake, whether the UCP government has done enough to ensure Alberta students come out of the pandemic with the least possible negative impacts will be a question voters will ask in the next provincial election campaign.
Dan Singleton is an editor with The Albertan.
