Saskatchewan students and school staff have been given the all-clear to go back to work as scheduled in September.
The provincial government announced the 2020-21 school year would begin as early as September 1, bringing an eventual end to the existing indefinite suspension of classes back in March. In-class learning for pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students will be restored using social distancing and other health principles.
Provincial ministries, including the Ministry of Education and public health groups, will send full guidelines on health and social distancing guidelines to teachers and school division employees as early as next week. School divisions will work with the province's Education Response Planning Team to iron out any kinks with the reopening plan.
The newly announced plan will also include backups in case of a second wave of the disease or any other event in which in-class learning would no longer be viable.
“Re-opening schools is a significant milestone for our province, and an important step for families to get back to a new-normal,” said provincial education minister Gordon Wyant.
Manitoba has partially reopened schools for the rest of the school year for one-on-one sessions with teachers or small groups of students, along with limited programs. Manitoba education minister Kelvin Goertzen had said he remained hopeful classes could continue as normal in the fall, but has not made firm commitments to when classes will resume in full.
