The provincial government has announced more funding from the COVID-19 emergency fund for education as school begins again after 6 months away from the classroom.
Education Minister Gord Wyant says the fund comes from the provincial and federal governments and from school division savings when everything moved online last semester.
$51-million will go towards sanitization, including 191 staff, equipment, furniture and technology upgrades, supports for immunocompromised students including 150 teachers and staff, and additional distance learning capacity, including 102 teachers and staff.
That’s a total of 443 hirings expected with this funding, which Wyant says is in addition to the more than 200 staff projected to be hired as a result of increased funding in the fiscal year’s budget.
Wyant isn’t sure how long it will be before the extra staff are hired, because he says that’s up to the school divisions.
There is $64-million left in the contingency fund for education and the next intake for applications will be December 1st.
In a normal year, operating funding for school divisions is confirmed after enrollments are submitted on September 30th, but because of the circumstances with the pandemic, the Ministry of Education is delaying any consideration for the redistribution of grants to January 29th.