By Noor Menhel and Hannah Menhel
For the millions of students in Canada and the billions around the world, the hopes for a “normal” school year are high this year, yet not everyone is expecting the perfect year. Since returning to school merely a few weeks ago, many students worldwide are anxiously anticipating how this school year will play out after three years of constant lockdowns and COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Through conducting an anonymous survey across all of Canada with 100 responses from students of ages ranging from elementary school students to university students, with the majority being high school students, we were able to gather information on how students are feeling about starting school in a new, post-pandemic way.
Earlier this year, the government announced that there will no longer be mask mandates in schools and most public places; however, it was only a few weeks ago that the government announced a restriction-free year. Most students were super happy to hear about this. Others, however, still do not believe that all restrictions and mask mandates should be removed.
Despite this, only 1% of all of the students surveyed stated that they were continuing to wear masks, and only 10% of the students said that they preferred online school when compared to the normal, in-person learning. Additionally, most students are feeling really great about the school year so far, and having a clean start.
One student said, “I’m feeling great, it’s so nice to see all of my friends and have my classes in-person!” Another student said, “I prefer in person learning due to classmates and teachers being there to answer my questions much more. I find in online school I’m more likely to get distracted and not pay full attention to the class. As well I’m less motivated to get up and be on the go, but with in person there is a reason to get ready which I feel makes my day more productive.”
Students are also very excited to be participating in clubs, sports, and other events without having to worry about the pandemic’s restrictions. One event in particular that most students were looking forward to was a semi-formal, a dance held annually at most high schools. In addition to this, all grade 12 students were looking forward to having the full graduation experience that the past three graduating classes were unable to have.
On the other hand, a lot of students stated they were already becoming worried or stressed out due to work overload from school. A high school student admitted, “I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed, not going to lie, not used to being back in work and I think it’s hit everyone so hard.” These feelings were common amongst a lot of high school students who participated in the survey. However, overall, there were definitely more positive feelings than negative towards the return to school.
Something that is quite shocking to us is the large divide between students who believe that this school year will be a completely COVID-19 free year with no post-pandemic effects and the students who believe this will not be the normal year we are all hoping for. Around 33% of students said that they did not believe this year was going to be a normal year. From the first couple of days that they spent in person at school, most of these students observed that the majority of their classmates were getting sick much faster and still showing up to school wearing no mask.
One student said, “I go to class and four different people are clearly sick, coughing on the verge of throwing up, they’re not wearing a mask, not going home because of it. The worst post-pandemic effect is that people no longer treat sickness as something that needs healing or isolation for, as if it doesn’t affect the people around them anymore.”
On the flip side, this student thinks that the school year will be normal. They said, “I do think this year will be “normal” because most Canadians are already vaccinated, so it would be unlikely to have another outbreak, and schools have already prepared for a normal year. (For example; my school has already planned a trip for Grade 9–12 over March Break to Quebec, Ottawa, and Montreal).”
All in all, the pandemic has definitely taken a toll on all Canadians for the past few years and nevertheless, we can say that we are improving and progressing to a new and better Canada, where COVID will not result in complete lockdowns. Much like the amazing students who filled out the survey and contributed to our article, we can only hope that this year Canada will maintain its low number of cases and people continue to follow the safety measures and precautions in order to do so. The possibility of this year being a “normal” year is very high, so long as everyone is willing to do their part and stay informed.
