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On March 16th, the city’s schools closed their doors and began preparing to shift to online learning.
While that plan was the best option during this pandemic, many students in the city were left hanging with no access to the internet and in turn no access to the online learning platforms.
But that won’t be the case very much longer.
The Saskatoon Teachers’ Association and SaskTel have partnered up to provide cellphones to students in need as a way to help them stay connected.
“There was a lot of worry among our teachers that we would lose these kids because for a lot of these kids school is the safest place for them. And there is definitely a need to stay connected with those kids and if they don’t have a connection at home we have a major issue. I’m not sure any one of us could survive without having connectivity at home over the last five weeks,” said STA President, John McGettigan.
“With the two school boards and the great help of SaskTel we’ll have 600 phones that will hopefully be in kids hands starting on Monday that will act as hotspots and will be connected to the SaskTel LTE network.”
On top of the phones, the school divisions will also be providing students with other devices such as laptops and tablets.
McGettigan says as the pandemic continues to affect more and more people these 600 phones might end up being just the start.
“Once we closed the doors of schools but kept learning open the priority is that we didn’t lose these kids. So principals in every school in the city then endeavored to find the need and then we surveyed those principals and now we know exactly which kids need that help,” he said.
“So without the help of principals and teachers finding out where these needs are we might not have been able to find these kids. And hopefully, because we have reacted pretty quickly there will be small gaps in these kids’ learning but maybe not big gaps. For kids in grade 12, this might be the difference between graduating or not.”
According to McGettigan, if you or someone you know is a student in need of this kind of help to gain access to the online learning platforms, the best way to get it is to contact a teacher or school principal. If that is not possible, then he says to contact either of the city’s school boards and they will put you in touch with someone who can help.
“We want to make sure these kids get exactly what they need to be at their best,” he said.
“I think it is chaos for everybody in this circumstance and these kids are often living lives of chaos above and beyond what people would realize and right now we are just trying to limit that and make sure they stay connected to those that love them.”
