Shorter school year may test B.C. students and teachers

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      Everyone is going to have to work harder to compensate for three weeks of class time missed during the B.C. teachers’ strike.

      “It’s certainly going to put pressure on teachers and students to cover more in a shorter period of time,” Vancouver school board chair Patti Bacchus told the Straight in a phone interview.

      The decision not to extend the school year will be felt more by students who struggle with getting through their course material. “They will be at a further disadvantage,” Bacchus said. “People tell me it’s doable. It’s not optimal, but it’s possible. And I can understand.”

      Then there’s the matter of Grade 10, 11, and 12 students, who are required to take provincial exams in specific subjects. “Those are when the marks start to really count for things like postsecondary applications and scholarship applications,” Bacchus said.

      When members of the Burnaby District Parent Advisory Council meet on Monday (September 29), they’ll be asking school trustees and officials how lost class time will be made up. “Everybody is trying to figure out how we’re going to deal with this,” Burnaby DPAC chair Jen Mezei told the Straight by phone.

      Mezei, a mother of three school-age children, has had initial discussions with the school-district superintendent. “It’s my understanding that something will happen so it’s spread over the full year rather than just on the first semester,” she said.

      When B.C. education minister Peter Fassbender announced on September 19 that the school year will not be extended, he expressed confidence that learning outcomes will not be affected. It’s an opinion that education-policy expert Daniel Laitsch agrees with.

      “I think his faith is well placed,” the associate professor in SFU’s faculty of education told the Straight by phone. “Teachers are professionals and have been trained for their position and worked very hard and are very familiar with the curriculum.”

      Public elementary and secondary schools opened on September 22, after the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association finally resolved their months-long dispute.

      Comments

      3 Comments

      cathy

      Sep 24, 2014 at 12:39pm

      Why not cancel the scheduled two week Spring Break and have the schools just close for the Easter long weekend?
      That's the standard holiday for most government workers.

      stuartm

      Sep 24, 2014 at 5:44pm

      Here's Gregor once again putting himself in the spotlight concerning yet another issue he has absolutely nothing to do with... and why is the school board chair supporting Gregor by allowing him to stand in the frame? She should be neutral and only concerned with the welfare of students - not helping Gregor get re-elected.

      Jim Oliver

      Sep 24, 2014 at 7:31pm

      Hi Cathy
      It is not that teachers have been asked to teach longer. The government would have to pay them if they did require more days of instruction. For example if you were a mill worker and you had missed 150 hours because you were on strike would you think it fair that you had to come in on the weekends and make up the time for no money? No, no one would. That's the issue. The government gave the money away that would allow this to happen when they spent $12,000,000 a day on parents who had kids under 13 registered as a public school student. If they should have done this or not is ,not important now. The important thing is the money is gone.
      Now I know people think teachers are civil servants and should just do as they are told. Nurses are public servants and I bet no one would think they should be forced to do shifts for free. It will be interesting to see how the nurses do with their contract. They tend not be as passive as teachers and believe what ever teachers get is where they start to bargain. The public is annoyed that little Johnny did not get a chance to go to school for 3 weeks. However, if they think grandma is going to get poor care because of nurse job action, everyone freaks out.