Both the Kenora Catholic and Keewatin Patricia District School Boards have gone ahead and canceled their quadmester two exams.
The KPDSB made it official Thursday (January 20, 2022) that no exams will be held.
On Tuesday night (January 18, 2022) the KCDSB made their announcement after TA principal Kylie Hughes sent an email to all parents informing them of the school's decision. The exams were scheduled to take place on January 26, and 27, 2022.
The email read “Due to the unpredictability of our current learning environment attributed to the Omicron variant which is causing student absenteeism compounded by interruptions of in-person learning (snow day today and remote learning days), we will be canceling exams (January 26/27).”
Both school boards will go ahead and administer summative evaluations, and teachers will be conducting rich assessment tasks (culminating activities, tests, etc.) for quadmester two.
In an interview following TA canceling exams, Paul White, Director of Education for the Kenora Catholic District School, said the school board tried as much as they could to keep to the standard exam schedule.
The next term is scheduled to begin on Monday, January 31, 2022.
This isn’t the first time that the pandemic has caused the school to cancel exams. On June 3, 2021, TA pulled the plug on exams for the last quadmester of the school year.
The decision came after other school boards across the province made moves to cancel exams at that time in an effort to help the mental health of students.