TORONTO – The Ontario Principals’ Council is asking the education minister to cancel this year’s Grade 10 standardized literacy test and delay it until next year.
They say the ongoing labour dispute between teachers and the government will affect how the test can proceed, given teachers’ work-to-rule campaigns.
All four major teachers’ unions are engaged in various job actions, including a provincewide strike today by teachers in the French system and rotating strikes by some elementary and high school teachers.
The principals say one of the reasons to cancel the test for this year is that accommodation requests for students have to be submitted soon to be considered for the March 31 literacy test.
But they say that task is affected by the teachers’ work-to-rule and if those accommodations are not in place, it creates inequity for students with special education or English-as-a-second-language requirements.
Grade 9 standardized math tests set for earlier this year were postponed to June because of the teachers’ job action.