The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation is offering no apologizes to the cancellation of some standardized math tests for grade 9 students.
The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is one of many in Ontario to postpone next week’s assessment due to the on-going labour dispute between education workers, teachers and the province.
President Harvey Bischof says they’ve never been a fan of those exams, noting the government even called the testing “broken and failing students”.
Bischof stresses it will be business as usual at local classrooms next week.
“What will be happening is students will be in class on Monday. They will be getting their education, they will be getting support from education workers, they will not be negatively affected by that.”
Bischof is hoping the latest development will spur some positive moment in contract negotiations, stressing the government’s response will determine if they move to a full-blown strike.
“If we see the government come to the table with proposals that support quality of education then we’ll be in a very different position than we are right now. That would be a positive sign that could change the way things go forward. If this government insists on eroding the quality of education, we are going to be in a different position.”
Class size, mandatory e-learning and job cuts are among issues the union wants addressed.
