Three extra planning days added to school calendars
In order to promote student academic success in the context of the pandemic, the Quebec government is adding three days of training and planning to the school calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. The Minister of Education, Mr. Jean-françois Roberge, made the announcement yesterday.
The schedule change for preschool, elementary and secondary education is intended to provide three days of professional enrichment to school teams. According to Roberge, it is an opportunity for school staff to upgrade their skills with respect to new teaching methods and technopedagogical tools, and also to promote the sharing of good practices and plan for the coming months since distance education services are an integral part of the current pedagogical landscape. This new measure will also allow the teams to fine-tune the supervision offered to each student throughout the year.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, school staff members have shown great professionalism in order to offer quality and safe educational support to all Quebec students. In this unusual context, I would like to highlight their sustained efforts and their great professional autonomy. Thanks to these three days of additional training and planning, school staff will be able to benefit from ongoing training, which will promote the academic success of all students,”
Roberge said in a press release. To avoid penalizing parents, the daycare service for the three days will be offered free of charge to all preschool and primary school-age children who are enrolled.
These three days must take place between Oct. 29, 2020 and the end of the school year 2020-2021, and the planning days must not take place on more than one day per month.
The state of affairs regarding the spread of COVID-19 recently led the Quebec government to take additional measures to specify the teaching conditions that must be applied in a school setting. Among other things, the school year is divided into two terms rather than three and the school network must in many cases resort to distance learning, which is a major challenge for which more preparation and support are required.