QUEEN'S PARK -- Thousands of public elementary students in Toronto will not receive a report card for their first term, the school board says, as a result of the ongoing labour dispute between teachers and the Progressive Conservative government.
In a letter to parents the Director of Education for the Toronto District School Board said school administrators would not be able to produce "accurate report cards" for the board's 174,000 elementary students without the help of teachers.
"As teachers will not be entering marks, learning skills and/or comments electronically, we are not able to produce Term 1 report cards or the Kindergarten Communication of Learning," John Malloy said in the letter.
In a bid to apply pressure to the contract negotiation process, public elementary school teachers launched a work-to-rule campaign last November -- teachers said they would no longer complete student report cards and opted, instead, to provide school administrators with marks and one brief comment.
Malloy said with thousands of report cards to prepare administrators would need significant time and resources to file an accurate progress report.
"I want you to know that this difficult decision was made after careful consideration and a thorough review of all options," Malloy said.
"We regret that report cards will not be produced as we know they are an important measurement of student progress"
Malloy noted that teachers are still expected to assess and evaluate student and that parent-teacher interviews, scheduled for Feb. 14, will still go ahead as planned.
