Esam and Stephanie Shawky spend time with their kids Sophia, 6, left, and Adam, 4, in their backyard in Newmarket, Ont., on Oct. 29, 2021.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
In her kindergarten classroom, Nancy Burt guides her young charges, some of whom have spent the better part of a year learning on a computer screen, to hold a pencil. She points to the left foot and then the right foot when it’s time for them to change into outdoor shoes. And two months into the school year, she still reminds them to stay in line as they walk down the hallways of her school in Kitchener, Ont.
These may seem like the routine teachings in the early years, but for Ms. Burt, who has spent more than two decades as an early childhood educator – 10 of them in a kindergarten classroom – this year’s crop of children needs more reinforcement of fundamental skills that might not otherwise have been required outside of a pandemic.
“They just need more,” Ms. Burt said. She added: “They’re definitely more attached. They haven’t been away from mom or dad for a year and a half.”
As the pandemic upended life in Canada, thousands of children, mostly in the younger grades, did not show up either in person or online for the last academic year. Others spent formative years of schooling on a computer screen. Now, as many of them return to classrooms, educators have seen a marked difference in the social and emotional skills of these youngsters – and are faced with the challenge of bringing them up to speed.
In Ms. Burt’s province, about 40,000 students that school boards had expected last year didn’t turn up in classrooms, and almost half of those students – 42 per cent – were in kindergarten, according to Ontario ministry data. At Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board, that shortfall was 5,500, and many of them were kindergarten-age children. Similarly, in Manitoba, public school attendance, which has typically increased by 1 per cent annually, dropped almost 5 per cent last school year as home-schooling registrations grew and the province saw a decrease in kindergarten enrolment.
Christopher Usih, the head of the Calgary Board of Education, said about 3,400 students did not enrol in school last year, and more than half of them were to enter kindergarten. The final enrolment data for the current academic year hasn’t been compiled yet, but Mr. Usih said the district has seen an increase in children returning to classrooms. In his conversations with educators, he’s heard that some of the youngest learners need extra help with routines and transitions in what “continues to be a stressful environment.”
“There’s no question that this year, because of the impact of COVID-19 and youngsters who have not been in school, that it has required that extra care and that extra time and attention to help youngsters adjust to the new space,” he said.
Kindergarten is optional in most places, but educators argue that it’s an important milestone. In kindergarten, children learn to identify numbers and letters. They also learn to focus, follow instructions and play well with others, important self-regulation skills that put them on a solid path to formal schooling.
Nikki Martyn, the program head of the early childhood studies program at the University of Guelph-Humber, said that more children entering school this year may not have had that pre-school experience, because their parents were home and nervous about putting them in daycare. They also missed out on other ways to socially interact with others, because early-years centres and library programs were closed.
In Ontario, the largest number of students who did not show up last year were in junior kindergarten. Ms. Martyn said educators are telling her that senior kindergarten students need help to put on their coats or to follow words in a book with their fingers.
“Now it’s the whole class, junior and senior kindergarten students, who are needing to learn those skills. It’s just more,” Ms. Martyn said. She added that those missing skills – academic and social – have flowed into Grade 1 classrooms.
Stephanie Shawky, a parent in Newmarket, Ont., said her eldest daughter, six-year-old Sophia, has been nervous about attending school. Her naturally outgoing child became anxious about how to develop friendships when she first returned to the classroom. Sophia spent her senior kindergarten year online and had a disrupted junior kindergarten experience when schools closed their doors to in-person learning in March, 2020.
Ms. Shawky’s son, Adam, who started junior kindergarten this fall, is excited to be at school. “But he doesn’t have a lot of people skills. He does not know how to play with other kids. He’s learning as he goes,” she said.
Teachers have been responsive, Ms. Shawky said, but she worries about the impact the disruptions have had on her children’s social and emotional development, and their readiness for school, especially her daughter.
“It makes me so sad. This definitely changed her,” she said.
In his classroom in Winnipeg, Grade 1-2 teacher Rich Palka said he’s noticed that some children are still working on identifying letters and sounding them out. Others are learning to raise their hands and take turns instead of shouting out answers, social cues they would have likely picked up in a normal kindergarten year.
Recognizing that there is a “deeper range” of learning experiences among his students this year, Mr. Palka said he has slightly adjusted the way he teaches. For example, during a lesson, he will pause to give students breaks before he returns to the concept.
Teachers typically use the early weeks of a new school year to bring students up to speed on concepts and foundational skills. There is a greater emphasis on doing so this year because of concerns that students may not have absorbed the same amount of material while their learning was disrupted, he said. “It’s something we naturally have always done. You really see the importance this year.”
Ted Fransen, the head of Pembina Trails School Division, where Mr. Palka teaches, said that the youngest students appear to need an orientation to learning in groups. Many grew accustomed to playing in their homes or just spending time with their family. Now that they’re in classroom, they “need extra coaching in social skills.” The division, he said, has added literacy and numeracy coaches to help with achievement gaps.
“There’s not going to be an instant rebound. It’s going to take the year,” Mr. Fransen said.
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