In two and a half weeks we will go back to school. In this third pandemic, will students and teachers enter well-ventilated classrooms at the start of school?
Posted at 5:00 am
We would like to answer you openly. But it is impossible. Especially since Quebec doesn’t know how much money was spent this summer to improve air quality in schools.
In addition to ensuring good respiratory health (a common public health goal, whether pandemic or not), good ventilation in schools helps reduce aerosol transmission of COVID-19.
COVID-19 is most commonly transmitted through droplets and aerosols when there are close contacts within two meters. The mask goes a long way in preventing this type of transmission. It is also transmitted over longer distances (more than two meters) by indoor aerosol, especially if the room is poorly ventilated. Good ventilation in the classroom is therefore important.
However, we are not improving ventilation and air quality in schools by shouting scissors. It is planned months in advance. Not when you’re going through a crisis in the middle of winter.
Unfortunately, the Legault government has been reactive (translated: belated) on the issue of air quality in schools from the outset. Education Minister Jean-François Roberge got bogged down in his often confusing explanations. He’s avoiding the subject now.
Still, Quebec has spent hundreds of millions to improve air quality in schools. From July 2020 to December 2021, Quebec invested $293 million. All in all, it’s almost as much as Ontario. Except that in Ontario, the Ford government has applied the precautionary principle by distributing air purifiers into classes that are not mechanically ventilated.
The other, more important difference: Quebec started much further than provinces like Ontario.
To ensure good air quality, a mechanical ventilation system is ideal. However, 54% of Quebec public schools do not have one. In Ontario, only 30% of schools do not have one (only 10% including ventilation systems in part of the school).). In British Columbia 4%. Improving air quality is therefore much more complicated – and expensive – for Quebec than for these other provinces.
From July 2020 to December 2022, Quebec will spend 518 million to improve air quality in classrooms. It spent 293 million in 2020-2021 and planned 225 million in 2022.
Is it alright? Honestly it’s hard to say. Partly because Quebec doesn’t know how much it spent each year to improve ventilation and air quality before the pandemic.
Have we done enough for the start of school in September?
Unbelievable as it may seem, the Quebec Ministry of Education does not know how much of the 225 million planned for 2022 will be spent in time for the start of the school year, he said. He won’t find out until the fall.
In this case too, instead of reassuring parents, children and teachers, Minister Roberge is conspicuous by his absence…
The Legault government’s strategy for air quality in schools also poses two risks:
1) First, we rely too much on teachers opening the windows. This works well in the spring. But we saw last winter that opening the windows at -30°C doesn’t work. If we haven’t planned enough work this summer, we’ll have the same problem next winter.
2) Then, at the start of the school year, Quebec set a target for all classes to have an average CO2 concentration below their standard of 1500 ppm. However, the Department of Education’s own experts recommended adopting 1000 ppm. In France and the United States, 800 ppm is used. In Germany 1000 ppm. Only England, New Zealand and Quebec use 1500 ppm. By using 1500ppm instead of 1000ppm, the Legault government acts like a teacher lowering the pass mark: it inflates the group’s scores, but it doesn’t make the students stronger.
The CO2 average should also only be calculated when the students are in class. We currently calculate weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., regardless of whether students are in class or not.
We hope Quebec spent enough money this summer to improve ventilation in schools. Because improving air quality is not just a way to fight COVID-19. It is also important for the overall respiratory health of students and teachers.