Attendance was a concern as students headed back to the classroom late last month, but according to the province’s education minister, it has been holding steady.

Tom Osborne says attendance rates have been somewhere in the low to mid 80s on a daily basis.

By comparison, he says normal rates for this time of year are usually around 90 per cent.

Given current public health guidance, he says it is understandable for attendance to be 5 to 8 per cent below normal.

As for teachers, he says attendance has been “almost normal,” noting that on Monday 89 per cent of teachers were in the classroom.

He says there have been some challenges with isolation guidelines in place, but “by and large” the plans they put in place to meet those challenges have worked.