Witness Testimony

Dr. Irvin Studin testified that pandemic-era school closures, particularly in Ontario, produced a large population of what he termed “third bucket” children—students who were neither in physical school nor meaningfully engaged in virtual learning, but effectively receiving no education at all. He distinguished three categories: in-person schooling, online schooling, and “no school,” arguing that large numbers of children fell into the third category due to prolonged closures, weak attendance enforcement, lack of internet access, unstable home environments, language barriers, disabilities, and teenage disengagement. He estimated that at peak closures, as many as 200,000 Canadian children may have been pushed into this condition.
Studin characterized extended school closures beyond the early months of the pandemic as “policy crimes,” asserting that leaders failed to recognize or respond to the cascading educational damage. He testified that school boards, public health officials, and political leaders collectively abdicated their duty to protect children’s right to education, and that no serious national effort was made to identify and reintegrate students who disengaged. He emphasized that once adolescents exited virtual schooling, the cost of permanent disengagement was extremely low and often unnoticed.
He argued that Canada now faces widespread under education, diminished academic standards, and long-term societal destabilization if corrective action is not taken. Studin called for an urgent, high-energy national educational recovery effort—actively locating disengaged students, reintegrating them into formal schooling, and significantly intensifying academic expectations. He framed education as a primary adult duty owed to children, asserting that failure to uphold this responsibility has lasting consequences for both individual lives and the country’s future.