B.C. teachers are saying they won’t comply with a request from education minister George Abbott to issue report cards retroactive to the beginning of the school year should the provincial government pass its Bill 22 back-to-work legislation this week.
Teachers haven’t been issuing report cards since they began Phase 1 job action in September after contract talks with the province’s bargaining agent broke down last summer.
Last week, Abbott said he intends to compel teachers to issue official report cards retroactively.
But B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Susan Lambert said teachers won’t comply with the request.
“The minister knows full well that teachers have been communicating with parents to ensure they are aware of how their children are doing in class,” Lambert said. “In fact, many parents have said they prefer the more informal personal contacts to the official reporting.”
Teachers have been providing students directly with their Grade 12 final grades and marks required for graduation, post-secondary application, and scholarship purposes.
However, those grades are unofficial, and this week UBC announced it is considering no longer be accepting self-reported Grade 12 marks from B.C. public school students.
According to the UBC’s admissions website, the university will instead wait until official Grade 12 spring marks from the Ministry of Education are provided in early May to make admission decisions, months later than usual.
With the adoption of Bill 22 legislation likely to come this week, teachers across the province are making it clear they don’t intend to go back to work quietly.
Teachers in school districts across the province have followed the Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association’s move to stop volunteering their time for extracurricular activities.
While Bill 22 calls for a mediator to help settle certain issues, Lambert says the process will ultimately fail because the government refuses to budge.
“We agreed to modify our proposals significantly and made it clear that teachers were willing to compromise on every objective, including salary. As I have said many times: Everything is negotiable,” Lambert said. “But the government’s ... move to push Bill 22 through the legislature by this Thursday have dashed any hope for a mediated settlement.”