Ontario to offer remote learning for 2022-23 school year, restart EQAO tests for primary grades

The Ontario government says schools across the province will resume EQAO standardized testing this spring after a two-year hiatus, and that an online learning option will be offered for at least one more additional school year.

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce made the announcements during a news conference on Thursday, which detailed the government’s 2022-23 school-year budget and “Learning Recovery Action Plan” to support students struggling with learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the Grade 3 and 6 EQAO assessments will restart this spring after a two-year pause due to the pandemic. The resumption plan, the government says, is to identify areas of learning loss due to the pandemic in different regions in Ontario.

“Given the stress of the past two years we now are at a point where we believe we need to be able to better understand the problem, which is why measurement tools are critical,” Lecce told reporters at the news conference.

The minister said that remote learning will remain an option for students for another year due to the evolving nature of the pandemic. He said the government is investing more money to develop online learning infrastructure and hire more temporary staff.