English books lag in education reforms

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Confucius once said: “You cannot open a book without learning something,” but high school students in the province’s English school boards, including Lester B. Pearson (LBPSB), might have to prove the Chinese philosopher wrong, as English textbooks part of Quebec’s curriculum reform are lacking.

With the reform hitting Grade 10 in the 2008-2009 school year, translations of the French textbooks for courses like history and citizenship, science and technology, and math are only expected to be ready in about two years. Despite the delay, school boards like the LBPSB will go ahead with implementing the reform.

“We’re mandated; the reform has not been derailed, so we’re going to go through with it,” said Ken Elliott, LBPSB’ director of educational services.

Elliott explained the process for translating books from French to English may be part of the delay: after the Ministry of Education, Leisure, and Sports (MELS) approves the French textbooks, the English school boards choose the material they would like to have translated for their students. MELS then subsidizes the translations from the books’ publishing companies in order to keep book prices down.

According to Elliott, books for Grade 7 and 8 social studies are “in the printing stage,” while Grade 9’s history and citizenship books should arrive in September 2009. Other English textbooks will only be available by 2010.

In the meantime, Elliott said teachers will use other materials and resources to teach according to the reform. In math, for example, students will learn from textbooks adapted from Ontario, work books, and a number of workshops. The teachers are also working with consultants on the evaluation process, Elliott said.

“It’s not as if they’re without resources. Whether I would say that’s adequate or not, we want our kids to have those textbooks. But the teachers are not being left on their own,” Elliott said.

Serge Laurendeau, president of the Pearson Teachers Union, said while the school board has been doing the best it can to support its teachers, they should never have found themselves in this situation in the first place.

“Before you implement a reform, you should have the materials ready,” he said, adding that while the curriculum reform has already been in place at the elementary level for eight years, they just received the Grade 1 and 2 math books in January.

“If we don’t have the proper material and the books, how can we meet the requirements and at least get a competitive average with the French side?” Laurendeau said.

According to MELS communication officer Stephanie Tremblay, teachers at both English and French schools have the curriculum reform manuals explaining how to teach the new courses available.

“The (curriculum reform) program has been translated in English for the teachers,” Tremblay said, adding there is a working committee looking into short-term solutions that will best help teachers until the textbook issue is solved. “They have the material to make sure the English students do as well as students in French schools.”

One concern raised by the lack of English textbooks was how Grade 10 students in English schools would fare in the provincial exams compared to their French counterparts. However, Elliott said, over the next couple of years, the exams will be conducted somewhat differently: students will not be as rigidly compared with those in French schools as in past years when MELS would review and moderate all exam results. By the time this review process resumes in about two years, Elliott said the students should have all the material they currently are missing.

“The kids are still going to have to do as well as they can on the exams. I don’t see us as being disadvantaged,” Elliott said about the temporary exam process. “But, yes, we’re missing textbooks, and we want them.”