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Province delays new curriculum

Changes will not take effect as scheduled for school districts
students
DELAY IN CHANGE: Students at Brooks Secondary School will not see planned changes to their school curriculum until next year. David Brindle photo

In a response to school districts across the province, BC Ministry of Education is delaying implementation of the new curriculum for grades 10 to 12 by one year.

According to the ministry, the reason is to refine the curriculum after teachers, principals and trustees asked for more time for implementation.

To collect feedback from students, some teachers started using the new curriculum last fall. It will now come into full effect at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.

According to Brooks Secondary School principal Jamie Burt, the school’s staff and School District 47 have invested a lot of time to be ready to implement the new curriculum. He said the school was ready to move ahead with some of the changes.

“We do welcome the decision to delay as we feel there is still a lot of work that needs to be done regarding the new grad program and the new assessment pieces,” said Burt.

Burt said the decision will allow Brooks and its teachers more time to work with the new curriculum in real settings, provide feedback into the grad program and take a longer look at student assessment and reporting.

According to Ken Holley, president of Powell River and District Teachers’ Association, the province needs to put up the financial resources and training for the new curriculum to be successful.

“This delay, although not unexpected, will allow teachers to gradually implement parts over the next year,” said Holley, “but also time to investigate the numeracy and literacy tests and the revised graduation program that are all still in draft form.”

The matter of restored class size and composition language also needs to be implemented, said Holley.

Those issues are still to be addressed by the province after the Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled in favour of a BC Teachers’ Federation appeal.