The Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation (STF) were disappointed with the provincial government’s decision to not delay the return of in person learning from the Christmas holidays.

The STF were hoping for a two day pause following the break to protect students and staff health. President Patrick Maze says he has heard from teachers who are concerned with staffing issues due to self-isolation requirements along with COVID exposures inside of schools.

Maze says the STF is in favour of in person learning, as long as it’s safe to do so. “Our preference is to run them in person and that’s why we asked for a couple of days in order to assess staffing compliments and understand what the impacts were.”

Some of the measures of protection the STF would like to see introduce from the provincial government is N95 masks provided to all staff and students. The STF also wants to see mandatory masking and proof of vaccination required for all activities including extra curricular.

An updated definition of fully vaccinated is another area that the STF would like to see addressed, as they believe that the definition of fully vaccinated should include the third booster shot.

The eligibility of boosters to include children who were born in 2017 is another measure of protection that the STF would like to implemented from the Saskatchewan government.

Maze added that the provincial government is not taking the fifth wave of the pandemic seriously enough by not adding any restrictions. “As long as there are no restrictions in the community, we have to expect that the virus is going to enter our schools as long as it enters our schools, the business community is also going to be impacted.”