Nova Scotia Education Minister Becky Druhan: “We finished strong in June, and we plan to pick up where we left off” was the way back-to-school was packaged for the public, writes Paul Bennett. Students will be mask-free and offered a full menu of in-school and extracurricular activities.
Everyone now agrees that schools need to be kept open, if at all possible, so the priority is on finding ways to ensure that it happens without running unacceptable health risks. What’s emerging almost by default is policy on mask mandates that’s based more on students’ ages and projected compliance rates than on established medical science infection rate criteria.
Schools are, and will continue to be, important but politically contested space in the ongoing COVID-19 response and in any subsequent health emergencies, from seasonal flu to monkeypox. Up until now, we have been far too reactive and it’s time to adopt an anticipatory stance and to integrate infection control and mitigation into regular education planning.
“Wait and see,” then react is not good enough when we now have more than two years of experience with COVID-19 and decades of practice trying to combat seasonal influenza epidemics in schools and workplaces. Looking ahead, Nova Scotia would be well-advised to study the Massachusetts research findings and to consider its recommended policy response. Universal masking is one tool at our disposal, and it is easier to implement than most of the other “layers of protection” and can reduce risk among students in older physical plant schools.