'Wildly successful' after-school program hopes to continue after province shuts down Manitoba Remote Learning Support Centre

Educators in a successful online after-school program are hoping it will find a way to continue after the province closes its remote learning support centre later this year.

The Manitoba Remote Learning Support Centre (MRLSC) launched in January 2021 to help immuno-compromised students attend classes safely online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, the province announced that it would be shutting down the MRLSC as the pandemic ended.

"With the return to full time in-person classroom learning, the enrolment in the Centre has significantly declined. In addition, public health and mental health experts tell us that students, particularly those in K-8, learn best in-person by connecting with their local learning community," said a letter sent to the families of MRLSC students on Feb. 7, 2023.

This also means the end of the centre's free online after-school programming available to all Grade 1-8 students across the province this past school year.

"It's one of those unintended consequences, we have this wildly successful after-school program that's being offered right now," said numeracy coach Sherri Burroughs.

Burroughs is a retired teacher who has been working with the after school program since its inception in October 2022. Clubs for nine different subjects are offered across two nightly sessions running Monday – Thursday. More than 400 students registered for the program last fall, and Burroughs said they have nearly twice that amount of students this term.

"I'm not sure that they were expecting it to be as wildly successful as it has been," said Burroughs.

The program employs six half-time teachers and 28 educational assistants who work with kids in the areas of English, French, speech and language development, writing, math, coding, visual art, and Project 11 mental health supports.

In Burroughs' "Math Playground" club, students make origami, learn card tricks, and play online math games using Google Jamboard. "We can have as many as 20 or 30 kids on it from across the province playing these games with each other – it's great!" she said.

Burroughs thinks part of the reason for the program's popularity is because it's easily accessible for kids who can't attend in person after-school programs. "These kids don’t have rides," she said. "But if they can get home, they can get online and be part of a club."

She added that it's also been great option for kids who don't have good learning supports at home.

"Here they're online with trusted adults doing some exploration in the different curricular areas that they are interested in, in a very safe place," Burroughs said.

Burroughs wants to see the program continue. "Obviously this is filling a need – its big, we've got a lot of kids and a lot of people involved … I don't know how the school divisions are going to fill that need," she said.

Registration is now open for the third and final semester of MRLSC after-school programming. Burroughs hopes it's not the last.

"I think this is a very special group of educators working with a very special group of kids, and we can't forget about them."