OTTAWA – Children in the remote northern Ontario reserve of Pikangikum are heading back to school.
Only a few classes were able to resume after Christmas because the teachers’ residences were found to be full of mould.
The teachers left town and many classes had to be cancelled.
But Chief Jonah Strang says the band was able to co-operate with the federal government to bring in some new trailers and clean up the mould in some of the existing homes.
He says students from kindergarten to Grade 8 are already back at school, and secondary school pupils will be back next week.
A cold snap expected on the weekend should make the ice road solid enough to bring the trailers in over the next few days, he said.
Native leaders had feared that a solution would take so long that students would lose their year, or have to go to school throughout the summer to make up for lost time.
“We’re back on track,” Strang said in an interview.
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