Teachers are concerned that parents are not being respected in their choices to withdraw their children from the Grade 4 and 7 Foundational Skills Assessment (standardized government tests).
They are being told to keep their children home if they are not taking the tests.
All students have the right to be at school.
Parents have the right to withdraw their children for extenuating reasons and do not need to explain their decision.
When our students arrive at school, teachers are not only obligated to provide them learning opportunities, but ethically we would never choose to isolate or ignore a child’s learning.
We also strongly believe that our students have more important learning to do than taking hours of tests, especially when the tests’ main purpose is to provide statistics to government, which are then misused to rank our schools.
Teachers plan activities every day to meet the varying needs of our students in our classrooms, and we want your child at school.
If your school’s administrator is telling you that your child can’t come to school, please send them so we can continue to teach and care for your child.
Vernon Teachers’ Association