Ontario’s education minister is “clarifying” comments he made urging parents not to take their kids out of the classroom for sports, saying parents can still ask for special leave.
New attendance rules kick in next academic year, when attendance and participation will make up either 10 or 15 per cent of a final mark for students, depending on the grade.
At an unrelated event on Monday, Education Minister Paul Calandra urged parents to help their kids in the classroom, suggesting nothing is more important than their learning.
“My advice to parents is keep them in school, education should be their priority,” he told reporters. “When kids pop in and out of the class, it’s very challenging for teachers … kids’ priorities should be to be in school.”
He went on to say the Ontario Hockey League had reached out to raise concerns about “high-level athletes” being punished for missing class. Calandra said there would be some flexibility, but that school should still come first.
“High-level athletes in training, obviously, we’ll make some accommodations for that,” he said.
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“But I say this to the sports organizations as well: education is the priority. The attendance in our schools has collapsed; we have attendance rates that are among the lowest in the nation.”
Then, on Tuesday morning, the education minister’s office sent a statement to journalists to clarify that students would actually be able to miss class for sport or music without being punished.
“As part of the new absenteeism policy, which is intended to stop students from skipping out on school, parents will continue to have the ability to request that their child be excused from school for activities that are part of a well-rounded education, including sports, music, debate and other school-organized activities,” Calandra wrote in a statement.
Ontario NDP MPP Chandra Pasma said it was evidence Calandra had “no idea” how education should work.
“The minister has absolutely no idea what is actually involved in education,” she said.
“Walking back statements he made just yesterday after facing immediate backlash over mandatory attendance shows just how disconnected he is from the real needs of students and educators.”
Ontario Liberal MPP Stephen Blais said the minister had still missed the mark and that the flexibility should extend beyond “school-organized activities.”
“Many high performing students are involved in activities outside of school which are foundational to their opportunities to pursue post secondary education and develop into well balanced adults,” he wrote on social media.
In Grades 9 and 10, attendance and participation will be 15 per cent of a student’s final mark and in Grades 11 and 12, it will be 10 per cent.
If a student has more than two unexcused absences, they will not be able to get the full 15 or 10 per cent.
Excused absences normally include illnesses and holidays, and while parents are allowed to excuse their children from school for a weekend hockey tournament that begins on a Friday, for example, Calandra says he doesn’t want that to be the norm.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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