Education Ministry Announces Big Changes to School Curriculum
Prince George, B.C. – Fewer finals, more parent input, and a new mandatory course are three of the big changes announced today in regards to B.C.’s new public school curriculum.
Education Minister Mike Bernier says instead of exams; students can expect a focus on “foundation skills.”
“So right now we have five provincial exams in the graduation years – grades 10-12, we’re going to be replacing those only having two exams that will test math skills and literacy.”
He says the government will be moving to classroom assessment for those other subjects that used to have provincial exams – science, social studies and grade 10 language arts.
“The reason why we’re doing that is teachers know their students best and choose a method to evaluate them that takes into account their strengths and their challenges rather than having a provincial exam where every student is looked at simultaneously and being graded at the same level at the same issues.”
As for report cards, from late June to October, parents will be consulted on what they want to know about their child’s progress and how they want to get that information. Bernier says the government will be releasing more details regarding that plan over the next “couple of months.”
Another new feature of the school curriculum is a new, mandatory course the ministry is calling ‘Career Education.’
“That will be starting in the 2017-18 school year where students will have to take this course in order to graduate,” says Bernier.
“But what they’ll be learning in that course will really be about showing them a link between their studies, the classroom and then their opportunities outside of school and opportunities in life.”
The new curriculum will be fully implemented in the K-9 years this fall, and will be available in draft for teachers to use for grades 10 to 12 at the same time.
“So really it’s about preparing students for success,” says Bernier. “We know the world is changing and we know that our education system also needs to change to keep up with that.”
Comments
doesn’t sound too bad, lets hope they stop shoving native studies on the elementary school kids, unless they are willing to shove all canadian cultures down their throats.
What’s wrong with Native studies??? It’s good they learn about other cultures so that they can grow up to be open minded and not like their parents
nothing at all wrong with it,
but I think it should be an option not dictated.
I don’t recall much from my elementary school days, but one of the things I do remember was when we studied the various First Nations Bands of the West Coast. I remember learning about the Nootka, the Haida, the Coast Salish, the Tlignit, the Tsimshian and others. I found it very interesting and certainly didn’t object to having it “shoved down my throat”.
It actually complemented quite well the other Canadian stuff we studied, like the fur trade, the gold rush, the explorers and voyageurs, etc.
I truly feel bad for the post secondary profs that are going to have to deal with this.. Testing is needed!
You should already feel bad. I taught part time for about 10 years. Last 2 years were the final straw. I’d always have a group of Asian students with poor language skills and somehow I was suppose to understand them, and they me. Totally frustrating. Fortunately it was just a side job for me. The kids coming out of the Canadian system at least speak one of the official languages even if they can’t read or write it.
Aren’t foreign students supposed to meet a minimum level of English proficiency based on TOEFL scores?
What is wrong with having every student graded at the same level with the same issues?
I’m assuming employers will have to be diligent with their hiring practices .
Sorry about our “jobs and the economy” mandate going for chite, but hey everyone, look over here and see what we are doing with public education!
I agree with verballable, testing is needed… too bad all we will know about education standards for our kids will be in math and english, apparently thats all that counts. Shocked that science and social studies is being dropped from testing… but then again education was never a big priority for this Christy Clark government.
Maybe we should check out the Finnish Education system.
They seem to have the top system in the world.
Check it out.
I have two in various universities and one in high school, I am fiercely opposed to this system! Grading then, will be totally subjective based on a teachers opinion of the student! So when a student is needing that extra 2% on his/her exam in order to reach the minimum requirement to be accepted into engineering (or what have you), they are at the mercy of the teachers. We had a situation where one of my kids retook a grade 12 course just to reach that required grade! All the kids province wide should be held to the same standards. This issue goes far beyond high school, they aren’t thinking about how the kids will struggle and fail in first year uni if they haven’t earned their grades based on a regulated grading system.
I don’t suppose that there is a document that lays out the specifics and the rationale for all of this?
This must be what Mr Bernier was talking about when he took over the job , that is , he proudly proclaimed he could work with teacher’s to satisfy everyone’s concern’s . I wonder how many Teacher’s will admit that a student has not met the curriculum.It appears to me this is a way to give a diploma to someone who is not going to go on to university.At least now the Fraser institute compares result’s of Provincial exam’s with this only the employer will know if they are qualified.
Educators wanted the provincial exams gone and that is what they have achieved. Provincial election coming up next year.
“The reason why we’re doing that is teachers know their students best and choose a method to evaluate them that takes into account their strengths and their challenges rather than having a provincial exam where every student is looked at simultaneously and being graded at the same level at the same issues.”
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Maybe I’m missing something, but should it not be expected that the system will educate students up to a certain standard? If the evaluation of students against that standard is not uniform, then how the heck are people supposed to know if the system is working properly? How do you compare school performance against each other? How do you compare districts against each other? How could you tell if perhaps one area has best practises in education that could be replicated elsewhere?
I don’t disagree the teachers know their students best, but perhaps that’s a problem in certain situations. There are many times where independent evaluations are needed.
It is much easier to push kids through where there is less standardized grading. What better way to not hold teachers, the district and the ministry accountable? By the time anyone realizes that the graduating students do not have learned intelligence beyond math skills and literacy, it will be too late.
“As for report cards, from late June to October, parents will be consulted on what they want to know about their child’s progress and how they want to get that information. Bernier says the government will be releasing more details regarding that plan over the next “couple of months.”
So, let me get this straight… they are consulting parents on how to do assessments on their children to the end of October, which will then need to be reviewed and reported on before any final decisions are made and passed onto teachers – so another 3-5 months? But they expect teachers to implement the new curriculum starting in September with unknown criteria for assessment, until further notice?
Sounds utterly logical to me! NOT!
And by the way, this new curriculum is focusing on online/internet resources and teaching ‘coding’. A school like Heritage Elementary, for example, that has 30 – 45 minutes of computer time per week per class. Even with the very expensive $300k unfunded new internet service per school district, the kids will get very limited time to use this online resource system, or learn any coding of any sort.
Are parents going to be required to send these kids to school with a personal device capable of internet access – which families can afford that?
This will make it easier to push the malleable into the university industrial complex increasing enrolment thus funding power and size for the universities. Who is behind this change, the educators who stand to gain. They are gaming the system to their own advantage.
Also considering the sad state of science in schools neglecting the scientific method using “climate change indoctrination” as one example this does not come as a surprise.
Everyone gets a pass except society will get it in the “end”, the dumbing down of education.
I can see a day coming when we will have to expand the immigration numbers to allow for the increasing number of “educated” people that we will need to bring into our province!
That day has been here since around 1950 when we entered the early part of the post war boom years. It has not stopped since then.
Just look at the creation of Ultimate as one example. The creation of the early Canadian high tech industries in Ottawa with such firms as Ccomputing Devicesis another one of many across Canada.
This auto system on my tablet is terrible!!
How it cannot recognize ‘Kitimat’ is beyond me. Have to turn that off.:-)
It’s all about saving money. This gov is always changing how our children are taught anyway they can to cut costs. How many times have the liberals screwed with our kids education? Time to put crustys kids in the public school system.
So the ex-mayor of Dawson Creek who has 20 yrs in the natural gas industry is going to tell everyone how education should function. Bernier go back to bed.
I never would have made it out of high school if it weren’t for the independent testing. That was always my saving grace.
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