Students entering grades 11 and 12 in September will have more new courses and personalized learning opportunities than ever, making sure future graduates are on a path to success.
“The exciting changes we are making today will help ensure that all kids graduate with the skills, competencies and attitudes they need to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing careers of tomorrow,” said Rob Fleming, Minister of Education.
“In addition to completing our K-12 curriculum redesign process with the implementation of grades 11 and 12 this school year, we are also rolling out a modernized graduation program that will give students unprecedented opportunities to explore where they want to go in life to build bright futures for themselves and their families.”
B.C.’s new K-12 curriculum is personalized and flexible, and focuses on the core competencies of critical thinking, communication, and social and personal responsibility, to help students succeed in a rapidly changing world. It was redesigned in collaboration with more than 300 B.C. and Yukon educators and academic specialists.
The Province’s efforts to implement a generational change in curriculum and assessment, while achieving some of the world’s best student outcomes, was recently showcased to education leaders from around the globe at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Future of Education and Skills 2030 Project meeting held in Vancouver in May 2019.
Under the new graduation program, students can develop the skills that post-secondary institutions and future employers are looking for, like creative, analytical, entrepreneurial and leadership skills.
New course options exist for students in a range of areas, including environmental science, computational skills, engineering, robotics, digital media and arts.
The modernized graduation program also requires students to complete two new career education courses and an in-depth project that offer opportunities for more hands-on, real-world learning.
This will provide students with career-life exploration opportunities, allowing the development of useful tools for their chosen path, whether it's college, university, trades training and, ultimately, the workforce.
In partnership with the First Nations Education Steering Committee, Métis Nation BC and the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, the ministry is also working on two new resources for teachers to support increased integration of Indigenous knowledge, perspectives and content in K-12 classrooms.
Working collaboratively with local Indigenous communities to create resources and bring local Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into the classroom is also addressed. In addition, a number of Indigenous-focused courses are among the range of new courses from which students can choose.
Teachers will also be supported with new resources that have been developed to help with the implementation of the new curriculum. The Ministry of Education worked with teachers and key education partners to create resources to help teachers deliver the redesigned physical and health education curriculum with guides for elementary and secondary teachers.
These guides, along with a curated list of existing resources, will provide teachers with a variety of instructional suggestions and tips for teaching important health topics, such as consent, stress and anxiety, safe sex, mental health stigma, cyberbullying and online safety.
Also this school year, Grade 10 students will write a new mandatory graduation assessment in literacy, in addition to a mandatory graduation assessment in numeracy that was introduced during the 2017-18 school year.
These assessments maintain the rigour and high standards of the previous course-based provincial exams and are fully aligned with the new curriculum. They are designed to evaluate essential numeracy and literacy skills developed across different areas of learning and grades, rather than testing knowledge gained from one specific course.
