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Priorities must be on learning facts effectively

Re: “Knowledge should still matter in B.C. schools,” May 15. Michael Zwaagstra’s excellent account of why we still need a strong foundation for B.C. students should serve as a wake-up call to all parents and other taxpayers.

Re: “Knowledge should still matter in B.C. schools,” May 15.

Michael Zwaagstra’s excellent account of why we still need a strong foundation for B.C. students should serve as a wake-up call to all parents and other taxpayers. We need to demand accountability from the B.C. Teachers’ Federation committees and policy-makers at the Ministry of Education, who are responsible for the implementation of our curriculum redesign.

We want our kids to learn math effectively again, and are dismayed that 30 to 55 per cent of schoolchildren are now enrolled in learning centres to learn their basic math facts. Currently, the math curriculum does not mandate that these fundamental skills need to be memorized. And the new curriculum redesign is even more watered down, shuffling the accountability of mastering these math facts even further behind all the other learning objectives.

A two-tier system of public education is flourishing in B.C. Our priorities must be on learning facts effectively, instead of implementing unproven strategies in the classroom.

Tara L. Houle

North Saanich