Abbotsford high schools to pivot to quarterly course scheduling

ABBOTSFORD (NEWS 1130) – School districts in B.C. are hard at work, planning for how to provide instruction starting in September – during the pandemic.

The Abbotsford School District has already changed its semester schedule for high school students.

The district will be switching from a two-semester system to a quarterly schedule, meaning high school students will have a shorter time to complete courses, but those lessons will be more concentrated.

Students would take only two courses at a time.

The school district says the reasons are threefold: to give high school students more flexibility between stages of the school year, should the pandemic evolve; to facilitate at-home learning if more lockdowns occur; and to facilitate stronger relationships between students and teachers.

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Premier John Horgan applauds efforts to think creatively to deliver education.

“One size does not fit all when it comes to coming out of the pandemic and dealing with dense urban schools versus more sparsely populated rural communities,” he says. “To not just try and put every cookie into the same cutter but instead to try to find ways that every corner of the province and every different community can come up with a plan that gives comfort to parents.”

Minister of Education Rob Fleming says more province-wide adjustments will be forthcoming.

“We will have more to say about the density of kids in high schools and health and safety protocols in the weeks ahead. Schools have been given the signal by our government that we are moving ahead to as many school kids in the system as possible.”

He says that means getting one hundred per cent of elementary school students back in school.

The Abbotsford School District, meantime, is telling parents that some schools might have slight variations to the schedule and to expect more details in August.