Ontario's Education Minister to make announcement Friday morning

Ontario’s Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, is set to make an announcement on Friday morning as schools continue to report COVID-19 cases and variants of concern.

On Wednesday, the NDP was looking for all-party support to cap classroom sizes at 15 students, which has yet to be implemented.

“The goal is to keep schools open – and that means we need to make schools safer,” Horwath said at the time. “The more contagious variants are here, and school-based COVID-19 cases are on the rise again. We need urgent action and investment — because children, teachers and education workers’ safety is important, and because no one in this province can afford for us to let a third wave get started.”

In the last two weeks there have been 675 reported COVID-19 cases in schools and 18 have closed. There are currently eight Toronto schools reporting at least variant of concern case.

Lecce said that enhanced safety supports would be provided to the schools, such as mandating Grades 1 to 3 to wear masks, targeted asymptomatic testing, stricter screening protocols, and hiring more teachers.

He will be joined by Donna Skelly, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade to make the announcement at 9:30 am.