Canadian parents want the students to wear the mask, according to a survey

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21 July 2020 8h31

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Canadian parents want the students to wear the mask, according to a survey

The canadian Press

OTTAWA – Nearly two-thirds of canadian parents believe that their children will resume on the way to school in the fall should wear masks at least part of the time, according to the results of a recent survey.

Not less than 41 % of the participants in the survey conducted by the firm Leger and the Association for canadian studies believe that students should be required to cover the face between the walls of the school or on the school bus.

Another 21% of respondents were in favour of the port of the mask, but only when the children are outside the classroom, whether in the bus, at recess or at lunch time. These participants would therefore be comfortable with the idea that students remove their mask once in the classroom.

And finally, 28 % of respondents thought that the masks should be optional.

Public health is currently of the opinion that the masks for non-medical, can reduce the spread of infectious respiratory droplets and, consequently, the risk of contagion by people who carry the virus without knowing it.

The survey was conducted online from 1524 adult Canadians from 17 to 19 July. According to the generally accepted standards of the industry survey, online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error, because they are not based on a probability sample of the population.

The vice-president of Léger, Christian Bourque, said that the port of the mask to the school could find more and more support as the courts make it mandatory in some contexts.

The social norms are already changing, he argued, noting the similarity between the number of respondents who support the wearing of the mask in the schools and the number of respondents who say they themselves cover the face at the grocery store.

“The social norm according to which we should wear the mask will only strengthen as we approach the beginning of the school year,” says Mr. Bourque.

The survey also suggests that many parents are concerned about the return to the classroom from a health point of view, even if concerns of an economic order are often invoked to justify the need to take dependent children and free their parents during the working day.

More generally, 62 % of parents surveyed expressed concern about their children who will return to school.

The anxiety level of the highest was recorded in Ontario, where schools are closed for months, and the lowest in Quebec, where the déconfinement schools and day-care facilities has been among the most eager in the country.

Even those who do say they are not concerned are likely to have other concerns, including the Idea that a child is asymptomatic can transmit the virus to a grand-parent, illustrates Christian Bourque.

The results show that 59% of respondents are in favour a-week hybrid school, during which groups of students come to school in person some of the time and work at home or connect through video conferencing to the rest.

Approximately half of the respondents reported that class size should be reduced by half and another 20% believe that the classes should be even more restricted, either to a third of their capacity in the usual way.

A little over one in five (23%) believed that the groups should remain as numerous as before the pandemic COVID-19.

“The majority of people expect to go back to school, but not in a class of normal size, or with a normal schedule”, said Mr. Bourque.

Le Soleil