Evaluations Everywhere We Turn

What an amazing day. It is awesome to see so many students working diligently at their studies in groups as well as individual lessons. There is nothing like the pressure of exams and evaluations to bring out the serious nature of education; especially for the teachers.

This year has been another saga in the unfolding story of the school's evolution from what we were to what the Spirit is transforming us into. However transformation is not without its pain. For weeks we were getting daily updates as to what last minute changes were being made by the government. Remember that this is all new to them as well; they have never had to deal with schools like ours. This caused a great deal of frustrations as we had to keep making adjustments to our plans and timetables. So why even bother with all this?

Evaluations are required because we have insisted on keeping our own curriculum. The government needs to do these evaluations to ensure that our students are keeping up with other students in the province. The evaluations allow us to see what gaps there may exist in our curriculum so we can make our adjustments. The government has no desire to close us but instead wants to work with us to make our schools stronger, for the sake of our students.

There are many more evaluations this year than we had expected which has been a large workload for Mrs. Roy as she scrambles to make sure that we have enough preparation classes and supervisors to cover the various exams. She has worked hard to insure that each student is prepared as much as possible. Keep in mind though that these evaluations are not for the purpose of determining pass and fail for our students but instead to evaluate our curriculum.

There are many frustrations that are involved in this process. The government is frustrated, our schools are frustrated and I am sure that many parents are frustrated. However we are in the midst of a process that the province has been going through for some years now. We are looking at covering this process in a much shorter period of time. Meanwhile the government is making adjustments to be fair to our students. In some cases in our Secondary III and IV's the years mark is allowed to take greater priority over the MEQ exam. This is excellent news for our older students.

So we keep moving forward and we keep learning. We have no doubt that our incredible God has opened wide the doors of opportunity. You as parents are able to participate in Christian Education at a fraction of the cost of other schools because of a dedicated staff who believe in the value of this ministry. At the same time your children are earning government diplomas that will allow them to move forward into the future God has planned for them.

I am sure that all of this has caused some questions for you. Please do not keep those questions to yourself. Contact us and ask those questions so we can relieve any fear that you may have at this time. So often the enemy loves to play on our fear of the unknown. Do not stay in the dark. Let's give chase to the enemy simply by being willing to ask those questions. Keep us in prayer as we continue to pray for you.