'A deal breaker': Sask. virtual school opposes government mandate to centralize remote learning

A remote learning program in Saskatchewan has expressed worries following an announcement by the provincial government which will see online learning centralized.

Flex Ed is the pioneer of online learning in Saskatchewan. The Saskatoon based virtual school has been delivering K-12 classes into the homes of students for 17 years.

Now, the Government of Saskatchewan is setting up a crown corporation to deliver online learning for the next school year.

It is asking Flex Ed to apply for approval to take part and to meet unspecified requirements. A process that was described as a deal-breaker by Flex Ed principal Ann Cook.

“We’d have to move to a centralized platform that they would choose which is a deal breaker for us because we have spent 17 years integrating all of our content,” Cook said.

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The government wants to centralize 33 online programs operated by public school divisions in the province. Catholic Schools are exempted.

The goal is to bring 4,000 students onto one platform.

“Whether it’s the new centralized model in the public system or any of our other school divisions, the Catholic or the French or the qualified independent,” Minister of Education Dustin Duncan explained.

“We do have a quality assurance framework.”

The 500 students attending the Flex Ed program meet government academic requirements with tuition paid by the province.

One parent, whose son has cancer, is worried about losing the flexibility offered by Flex Ed.

“He doesn’t necessarily feel well enough to do his schoolwork each and every day, but there are some days where he feels really great and he can zoom through a whole pile of school work in a day,” Carmen Herzog explained.

“So, to have that freedom of time and that flexibility, it’s just huge to us.”

Minister Duncan expressed he doesn’t believe the Flex Ed program will be impacted.

However, he did admit there are still many questions to be answered about the government’s new online education framework.