'Additional stress on kids': Advocacy group calls for diploma exams to be cancelled amid pandemic
Lucie Edwardson | CBC News | Posted: March 17, 2020 7:28 PM | Last Updated: March 19, 2020
Alberta Education says decision is subject to change
Diploma exams should be cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic and provincewide school closures, according to an advocacy group, Support Our Students Alberta (SOS).
On Sunday, the province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, announced that all grade schools in Alberta were being ordered to close their doors to students and cancel classes indefinitely because of concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
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In the same news conference, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said that while classes would be cancelled, she still planned to go ahead with Grade 12 provincial diploma exams.
On Monday, in an interview with CBC News, LaGrange reiterated that plan.
"Diplomas, for the time being, are going to go ahead," she said. "But it is a very fluid situation and that can change."
Barbara Silva, communications director for SOS Alberta, a Calgary-based advocacy group, said this is something that should change.
"I think that it's something that both high school students and their parents and school boards are going to have to pressure this government to retract," she said.
"They're not going to be able to bring kids back to sit in a gym to write an exam that is unnecessary for post-secondary applications and admissions."
During an uncertain time and without knowing how courses will be delivered in Alberta, Silva said diploma exams only put pressure on young people, who are already feeling anxious.
"It's literally putting additional stress on kids at a time when there are enough stresses around us," she said. "They are concerned about having to write a Grade 12 exam when they're out of class for three months."
LaGrange said Alberta Education is working closely with post-secondary institutions to ensure that whatever is ultimately put in place does not hinder the eligibility of students to access post-secondary.
"We're trying to determine that," she said.
During the 2013 floods, the Calgary Board of Education cancelled diploma exams but did make alternative arrangements for students who still wanted to write them.