REGINA -- The start of the school year may be delayed a week, but that hasn’t eased concerns of parents around the province.
Regina’s Cecilia Prokop won’t be sending her daughter to school when classes begin next month.
"We feel nervous, we feel that the Government has not done a great job of planning and preparing schools and families," she said.
Prokop feels let down by the provincial government’s Safe Schools Plan and is concerned with the lack of investment to address class sizes.
She plans on homeschooling her daughter until the pandemic passes.
"Education is a provincial responsibility and the school divisions can carry that out to a certain extent," Prokop said. "I have a lot of faith in my school division and in my schools, but the truth is they can only do so much when the literal dollar amounts aren’t there."
Prokop’s concerns are similar to parents across the province.
The Keep Saskatchewan Kids Safe account on Twitter, which was set up by Elya Lam and other concerned parents, has heard many stories of families worried about sending their kids back to school.
"People across the province are devastated, they just want to keep their kids healthy, they just want to keep their families healthy, they just want to keep their community and province healthy and safe," Lam said.
Lam hasn’t decided yet if she will be sending her two school-aged children to school. She said this decision shouldn’t have been put on parents in the first place.
"For a lot of families, they don’t have a choice and we need to make sure that our schools are safe for everybody that needs or wants to be there," Lam said.
For Prokop, homeschooling is an option because of a flexible work schedule and an education degree. She said it still wasn’t an easy decision to make.
"It’s not something me and my family ever assumed would be our first choice, but we’ll see how it goes," Prokop said. "I’m hoping there will be some real world learning while she helps take care of her little sister."
Students will return to school in Saskatchewan on Sept. 8.
