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BC Teachers will not be doing retroactive report cards

Passage of government's proposed Bill 22 key in processing of report cards

Members of the BC Teachers’ Federation will decline to make up report cards that were not issued prior to passage of Bill 22, BCTF President Susan Lambert said on March 8.

In response to Education Minister George Abbott’s comments today that he intends to compel teachers to issue retroactive report cards, Lambert noted that, since September, teachers have been communicating regularly with parents through a variety of informal means: phone calls, e-mails, notes to the home, etc.

“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.”

From the beginning of the “teach only” campaign, the BCTF has been very clear that Grade 12 final grades and marks required for graduation, post-secondary application, and scholarship purposes will be provided. Grade 12 students and their parents should not be concerned that their post-secondary plans will be in any way hampered by job action.

Lambert added: “Minister Abbott is ignoring a commonly accepted labour relations principle: struck work is simply not done. Clearly a requirement to make it up would render any strike ineffective. In this dispute, report cards would be considered struck work.”

She said: “It is unfortunate that Mr. Abbott is once again needlessly inflaming an already tense situation. His comments show once again the disrespect this government has for teachers and the work we do.”

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