TORONTO -- The deadline for secondary students of Ontario’s largest school board to switch between in-person and virtual learning has been delayed.
According to Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird, the deadline is “on hold” while the board reviews its own delivery model.
“Staff will be looking at options that will provide greater stability for student, staff and families — in both in-person and virtual learning,” Bird said.
The deadline was scheduled for this Thursday at 4 p.m. No reason was provided for the delay.
On Sept. 30 elementary school students in the TDSB were offered their first opportunity to switch between the two learning methods.
As a result, some 7,800 students opted for virtual learning, while 4,000 opted to switch to in-person learning.
The board would later apologize to parents and guardians for not assigning all elementary students with a teacher for online classes.
At that time, the board said about 2,500 remote learning students still had not been assigned a teacher as the board struggled to find enough staff for the virtual school.
Bird said that additional information on the delay would be provided next week, while adding that any secondary student who has already requested a switch can expect the change to begin on Nov. 23.
Right now, there are more than 17,000 high school students at the TDSB enrolled in virtual classes, with close to 53,000 others taking part in in a mixture of in-person and remote learning.
