School District No. 46 has adopted new provincial exam dates that will extend the first semester for high school students and balance the year into two more equal parts.
“With the strike action it created an imbalance in the semesters so it was our choice, and we thought it was the right decision, to balance off the two semesters,” assistant superintendent of schools Greg Kitchen said, noting that without the change the first semester would have been three weeks shorter than the second.
The new schedule puts the completion of the first semester at Feb. 5, 2015 with final exams taking place Feb. 2 to 5.
The second semester will start on Feb. 10, 2015 and end on June 18, 2015 with final exams June 19 to 24.
Although the loss of three weeks at the beginning of the school year due to the teachers’ strike will impact learning, Kitchen said the change is meant to “minimize the impact so it’s not as large of an impact on one semester.”
“We feel that it puts the missed days in a more modest range that we feel teachers and students can adjust to,” he added.
