The Director of Education for the Hastings Prince Edward School Board says there’s obviously nothing normal about this school year and parents and students shouldn’t worry so much about marks and report cards and passing or failing.
Appearing on CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show (Monday to Friday 9:05 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.) Sean Monteith said the provincial government made the right move when it announced that no student will fail the school year unless there are major problems.
“It’s unfair to put the pressure on parents who aren’t educators and might be working away from home to supervise their kid’s online learning. Both parents and students should just enjoy the learning experience as much as possible.”
Director Monteith also stressed that parents shouldn’t stress about different teachers offering lessons in different ways at various schools although the subject matter and grade level are the same.
“Remember, this is new to everyone, teachers included, and no one is going to fail.”
Meanwhile, Monteith said he believes parents and students are quite right to be worried about grade 12 and moving on to college, university, or trade school.
“Believe me, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities are working very closely together to come up with a roadmap for the admission of new students to the various post-secondary institutions. They need students or they can’t run their programs.”
But those details have yet to be worked out. Meanwhile, Monteith said he and his senior management team are already planning for what could be a large number of current grade 12 students returning next year when their education will be offered in the usual manner because of worries about marks and enrolling in to post-secondary institutions.
