IT'S FEBRUARY! VRP'S ANNUAL
- LOVE
FOR LITERACY MONTH -
Following last year's pivot to Virtual Volunteer Readers Programme (VVRP), we
hoped to return to schools this Fall and read face-to-face with our struggling
grades 1 and 2 children. Sadly, it was not to be; we continue to read virtually.
Disturbingly, ongoing shifts in education from school closures to remote
learning to in-school programs is taking a serious toll on this generation of
students.
In December 2021, the Washington Post posed the question: Did Learning Remotely Work
Internationally? and concluded: "For the most
part... the answer is no... For too many schoolchildren - especially the
disadvantaged, younger students and girls - the price of the pandemic could be a
lifetime of opportunity lost."
STATSCAN concurs! See their chart of COVID-19 & school closure
impact on Canadian children. Here at home, the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table asserts
that education and schooling in Ontario have been profoundly disrupted,
particularly affecting low-income families... racialized and Indigenous groups,
newcomers and people with disabilities. Many of the children with whom
we read are drawn from these groups.
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