To the Editor,
Re: Students skip class to study for final exams, Jan. 26.
First let me thank you for the continued dialogue around education in Nanaimo. For years the topic of our education system received little mention in the papers. I for one am glad to see the discussion.
That said, please know that students were writing many more exams than the few remaining provincial exams.
Teachers of senior academic courses like biology, chemistry, Physics, math, English, French and history, to name a few, still held exams at the end of their courses.
Junior students wrote exams too, preparing them for the experience of senior courses.
Post-secondary institutions might not require provincial exams for entrance, but most disciplines – academic and applied – still have students write exams at the end of a course.
With no break in classes, students and teachers attempted to make the best of the situation.
Students wrote finals as in-class exams. They attended classes before and after their final exams, sometimes arriving late because they legitimately needed more time to complete an exam. Teachers ran classes and exams despite interruptions, marked final projects, marked final exams and marked provincial exams and prepared for classes next semester.
So in fact, exams were being written all week, and only some of them were provincial exams.
Tanya Lebans
Nanaimo