One in three students back in classrooms in British Columbia: minister

Education Minister Rob Fleming says about one third of students returned to classrooms in British Columbia yesterday and he expects those numbers to rise.

Fleming says in countries like New Zealand and Denmark, more families sent their kids back to classrooms after hearing it was safe.

He says guidelines limiting class capacity won't change and there are response plans in place in case of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Kindergarten through Grade 12 schools opened yesterday on a part-time and optional basis, while online learning also continues for the final four weeks of the school year.

Fleming says the partial return will allow staff to prepare for a new school year in the fall, and they will spend summer fine tuning how it will work.

Given the potential of a second wave of COVID-19, Fleming says it's not unlikely that a hybrid of in-class and online learning will be part of the next school year.