A new NEWSTALK 1010 exclusive poll shows a struggle in homes across this province.
It seems the majority of parents want their children to go back to school in the fall, but there are many who are wary about the possibility of contracting COVID-19.
"The issue I think people are struggling with is...when you send a child to an educational institution, who's going to be mingling with other children, do they bring anything home?" says pollster John Wright.
The survey, conducted by Maru/BLUE, finds 60 percent of Ontarians believe its time to get kids back in the classroom and 67 percent agree that not having kids at school in a learning and social environment is going to damage their mental health and ability to grow up properly.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded to the findings, himself saying he thought they were low compared to the conversations he's having with parents, who overwhelmingly want kids back in school full-time.
"They want certainty when they go back to work that they're going to be there five days a week," he said. "The reason we have three other areas, God forbid we go the other way and we get a second wave."
"You have to have a backup plan."
However, 54 percent think children should not be back in school because of the potential of them contracting virus.
It sounds like most parents are pretty happy with the work their children's teachers are doing. 69 percent in Ontario are confident that teachers will do a good job in providing online learning.
Wright however, points out that it doesn't work for everyone. "Not every student is capable of ingesting education in one mode so, we're going to have to take it a step at a time," he says.
Most parents would also like to see school boards and governments think outside the box when it comes to back-to-school. 73 percent support the idea of using closed movie theatres as possible teaching venues for high school students.
Ford said there's no ridiculous ideas to making this happen and while he'll leave overall solutions to his education minister Stephen Lecce, he did bring up the idea of more outdoor education during a conversation with a teacher.
"Weather permitting, not raining, not cold, if the kids could go outside as much as possible and learn outside and they said hey, that's what we're pushing at our board," he said.
The polling shows there is a real appetite for the province to spend more money to make school safer.
73 percent in Ontario agree that the province should put more money into the school system so they can make accommodations.
What should the education minister take from this poll?
Wright says Stephen Lecce needs to understand that parents are wary. "These are legitimate concerns so I'm not sure I'd be forcing the issue but I'd also be flexible. We want something to take place for the kids. Is it absolutely necessary to take place on September 1st? If it takes until September 15th or October 1st, does it matter?"
Here is a closer look at the results:
Time for School?
67% of the Canadian public-Ontario 67%-agree that not having kids at school in a learning and social environment is going to damage their mental health and ability to grow up properly.
64% of the Canadian public-Ontario 60% -agree it's time to get kids back into the classroom.
58% of the Canadian public-Ontario 54%-agree that schools have got to open in September to make sure that people can return to out of home work or get a break from their kids.
But Half (52%) of the Canadian public-Ontario 54%-believe that children should not be returning to school because of the potential of them contracting COVID-19. Alternatively, there are those who are more adamant that children should return to the classroom despite the potential of them contracting COVID-19 (48%)-Ontario 46%…
Assessment of Provincial Government…
58% of the Canadian public-Ontario 49%-believe their provincial government has done a good job in planning for schools to re-open in September.
74% of the Canadian public-Ontario 73%-agree that their provincial government needs to put more money into the school system so they can make accommodations to the impact of the pandemic, even if it makes the provincial deficit higher.
Assessment of School Boards…
64% of the Canadian public-Ontario (53%)-believe that the school board in their municipality is doing a good job in getting ready for a re-opening.
60% of the Canadian public-Ontario 50%-agree that their local schools have got adequate on-site measures in place to ensure a healthy and safe environment for students.
73% of the Canadian public-Ontario 73%-support the idea of using movie theatres that are currently closed as possible teaching venues for secondary school students if necessary.
Assessment of Teachers…
66% of the Canadian public-Ontario 59%-believe that teachers unions and their members are providing leadership so that schools can be prepared to re-open.
76% of the Canadian public-Ontario 69%-are confident that teachers will do a good job in providing online learning to their students.
This poll was conducted among 1,519 randomly selected Canadian adults in both English and French who are members of Maru/Blue's Online panel July 17-20, 2020 and is considered nationally accurate to within +/- 3.5 percentage points using a Bayesian Credibility Interval. The results have been weighted by education, age, gender, and region to match the population according to the most recent Census data so that the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies between the reported totals and data tables are due to rounding.