Nanaimo secondary students are getting parents involved in their campaign to have a week off classes at exam time restored.
Students staged a rally outside school district headquarters last month, after the district decided to hold regular classes during exam week. In the past, classes were cancelled for the week and students only went to school to write exams.
The change was prompted by the Ministry of Education's decision to eliminate most provincial exams for senior students – students are now only required to write five provincially mandated exams over the course of three years: three in Grade 10, one in Grade 11 and one in Grade 12.
But students argue that exam week, which is Jan. 23-27 and June 18-26 this year, is used to study and prepare for the next semester, and that teachers hold exams for other courses during that week.
Tali Campbell, a Grade 11 John Barsby Secondary School student, said students hope parents will sign letters asking that their child be excused from classes during exam week.
The letters will be shown to teachers and then collected by campaign organizers in each school.
Campbell said students plan to bring the information to the school district's attention and are hopeful that showing trustees that parents support the campaign will result in changes.
"I think their ears will be a little more wide open," he said. "They can see we're actually dedicated to this."
Jamie Brennan, school board chairman, said it is encouraging to see students getting engaged in current issues, but this is a decision that the superintendent and school principals have made and one that the board is not getting involved with.
"The position of the board is we're letting our managers manage," he said. "It's still a week in the semester. It's not a vacation week."
Donna Reimer, school district spokeswoman, said secondary schools are doing different things during exam week, such as giving one group of students a day off to study for exams – the Grade 10 students have three exams, whereas Grade 11 and 12 students have only one.
Campbell said students at John Barsby get Jan. 27 off, except for the Grade 10 students, who get three days off.
But many senior students are taking courses in different grades and a Grade 11 or 12 student could have more than one exam, he added.