Dear editor,
My name is Jamie Barendregt, and I am a grade 12 student of Covenant Canadian Reformed School in Neerlandia. I am writing in regards to government diploma exams being worth 50% of our mark.
How would you like to spend all year on a subject and all that work adds up to only half of your entire mark? And three hours in one day provides the other 50% of your final mark. I have friends who are intelligent and are very studious and do very well during the year, but once it comes exam day have a melt down and don’t do very well. The Alberta School Board Association rightly stated earlier this month that “It’s time for a change” from all the high-stakes exams.
The Edmonton Public School Board Chair Sara Hoffman says “Our board decided unanimously to support the motion to reduce the overall weighting of diploma exams from 50 per cent to 30 per cent”. I agree with this push to lower the Alberta exams so that your mark is not determined by a 3 hour exam. I am pushing for this because in everyday work life, you don’t work up to a final big assignment for your boss. Rather your day to day work matters and major projects are revised and reworked over a period of time. No one’s career boils down to three hours of work.
The other major issue with the exams is that when it comes to applying to post-secondary institutions Alberta students are at a disadvantage. In every other province besides Alberta final exams are either made by the classroom teacher or worth substantially less. All students are asking for is a level playing field. Why should our province be placed at a disadvantage when it comes to competing for a select few university or college placements?
The Alberta School Board Association is correct. Let’s hope our new Education Minister acts on this recommendation.
Jamie Barendregt
