On April 6th, local time, a large number of schools in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, will begin to stop offline teaching because education authorities are worried that the coronavirus epidemic will spread to schools.
The first to announce this decision was the Peel District, which is adjacent to Toronto. Lawrence Loh, the Public Health and Medical Officer of the Peel District, signed an order on April 5, requiring all primary and secondary schools throughout the jurisdiction to stop offline teaching from 00:00 on April 6 until April 18. Whether to extend this order after expiration will depend on the situation of epidemic control.
Later on the 5th, the Toronto Regional Education Bureau announced that 11 primary and secondary schools in the jurisdiction will stop offline teaching from April 6th. There have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 in these schools, and the health department is investigating. However, the Toronto Department of Education did not disclose the specific number of cases.
At the same time, the Toronto Catholic Diocese Education Bureau also announced that from April 6, seven schools in the jurisdiction would be closed, and some other schools temporarily changed to online teaching to investigate confirmed cases of COVID-19. The Bureau of Catholic Diocese Education of Dafflin-Peel announced that from April 7, some grades of schools in the jurisdiction will be taught online.
It is worth noting that these decisions of the Education Bureau are inconsistent with those of the Ontario government. The Ontario government believes that schools are safe at present, and although a province-wide blockade has been imposed, it has not required schools to close.
