HALIFAX – It was all about the finishing touches on Tuesday as schools prepared to welcome students and teachers back to the classroom.
It was also a day for some political parties to announce how they plan to improve the work in these classrooms.
Ramona Jennex, the Nova Scotia education minister. announced the province will invest $6 million to expand the Succeeding in Reading program up to Grade 3 by 2014-15.
Students in grades primary to three and those in Grade 10 will also learn from a new math curriculum that Jennex said will focus on fewer topics, but explore them in greater depth.
“We’ve pulled back to make sure that we’re covering a certain number of outcomes in math that the children master them before they move in to the next level,” she said.
That announcement came just hours after Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative leader Jamie Baillie announced that, if elected, his party would provide a tax credit of up to $200 to families and teachers for school supplies.
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“A Progressive Conservative government will share in the cost of sending you kids back to school,” he said.
According to Baillie, the tax credit would cost the province about $3.9 million each year. He said the exact details of his plan will be revealed after an election call.
Baillie also promised his party would work with schools to reduce their back-to-school supply lists and class sizes, and provide more meaningful report cards.
Jennex said her department is also working on improving report cards.
“I’m reaching out now hoping that parents and teachers give us feedback on the report card,” she said.
Jennex said she was concerned after she heard earlier this summer from parents who said they weren’t satisfied with how report cards were written.
At the end of the last school year, some parents complained that the report cards contained too much jargon and didn’t shed light on how students were faring.
Jennex also reiterated plans to give nearly 300 Grade 7 students in four schools tablets, portable computers or other devices to help them learn math starting this month.
The $1-million cost of the pilot project, announced in June, will be split between the government and a number of Nova Scotia businesses.
With files from Mayya Assouad
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