The provincial government has announced a major change to the province’s education system, including the elimination of provincial exams for secondary students.
Two core assessments will replace the previous five provincial exams students have been required to write during their graduation program years. One of the assessments will focus on math while the other on literacy, two skills that are the foundation for all subjects.
For subjects like science, social studies, and language arts, students will be assessed in the classroom.
According to Education Minister Mike Bernier, this will allow teachers to choose the method of evaluation and take into account their student’s strengths and challenges, as opposed to a general provincial exam.
In addition to scraping provincial exams, parents will now be able to weigh in on report cards. From June to October, parents will be consulted on what they’d like to know and see on report cards to better understand their child’s progress.
The new curriculum will be implemented for kindergarten to grade 9 this fall, and will be available in draft for teachers to use for grades 10 to 12 at the same time.
As of September 2018, students will also be required to take a Career Education course in order to graduate. The course aims at helping students link what they learn in classrooms to real life opportunities.
