TORONTO -- The principal of an elementary school in Toronto’s east end is warning parents and guardians of students to prepare for lower than expected grades when they receive their report cards due to the challenges of remote learning.

In a letter obtained by CTV News Toronto, Bill Koskinas, principal of Morse Street Junior Public School in Leslieville, asked students and parents to keep an “open mind” when viewing their marks.

“If marks appear to be lower than what you were expecting, it may not be due to a lack of effort, but more likely due to loss of valuable in-class time and supports,” Koskinas writes in the letter dated Jan. 29.

“As the school closure continues, we are worried that despites our good intentions and efforts with online learning, the learning gaps for some of our students will continue to grow.”

The letter goes on to state that despite the changing nature of learning at a distance amid a pandemic, the benchmarks for what the province and school board consider to be a successful education have stayed the same.

“The question that everyone was struggling to answer was, how do we balance all of these, yet provide an accurate and fair mark for our students when all the basic pre-existing conditions have changed, but the Ontario Ministry of Education ’s and TDSB [Toronto District School Board]’s standards remained the same and no adjustments have been made at least until now,” Koskinas writes.

The letter comes to light as students in Ontario’s COVID-19 hot spot regions (Toronto, York and Peel regions) returned to in-person learning Tuesday after weeks of learning from home.

Reaction to the memo has been mixed, with some parents arguing that students are being punished academically due to the limitations of learning from home.

“It seems unfair to punish a student for something that's totally out of their control,” one parent said speaking to CTV News Toronto outside of Morse Street Junior Public School on Wednesday. “If you can't get through the curriculum maybe that's the issue you need to look at.”

“I think we were a little bit surprised, but thankfully our grades were the same as they've always been,” said another parent.

For the TDSB’s part, the board told CTV News Toronto that it’s currently collecting data from the elementary report cards sent home electronically last week and will be reviewing the data to learn more about student achievements. 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education said in an email that it has "heard the need for flexibility" in the type of assessment teachers could use in determining final grades as the pandemic continues.

"In most cases, this may mean an extended essay or report, as opposed to a single exam for 30% of the grade, which would enable students to demonstrate their learning in the class."

With files from CTV News Toronto's Mike Walker