A growing practice in the United States that combines storm days with technology is getting noticed by school officials in the Maritimes.
“Students and teachers become quite concerned when you start to lose seven or eight days,” says education consultant Jim Gunn.
Gunn authored a discussion paper on the matter four years ago. He was assigned to examine what Nova Scotia’s government could do to reduce the number of lost teaching days.
“The problem has been that, if it is not a bad year, nobody tends to think about it,” says Gunn.
This winter has been a particularly rough season, not only in the Maritimes, but all across North America. It has been felt particularly hard in U.S. school districts where storm days are rare.
To help make up the time missed, several U.S. school districts are swapping storm days for e-learning days. Lessons, readings, and work exercises are posted by teachers online and students are required to complete them at home.
“It may have quite a bit of potential, it should be looked into,” says Gunn.
Gunn admits online accessibility could pose a problem. While laptops have become more common in the classroom, the New Brunswick government says they are not common enough.
“Most people do have computers,” says Education Minister Marie-Claude Blais. “We have children that we know in remote areas that do not have the internet.”
Right now, options for making up storm days are firmly rooted in the classroom.
“There is always the possibility of looking at the March break, or bringing the school year to a later end,” says Blais.
Carefree storm days are a tradition in the Maritimes and Gunn says that is part of the problem when it comes to looking at new ideas.
“Changing part of a culture, or changing values and old traditions needs some work, it needs some commitment over time,” he says.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore
