Grades one, two, three, and twelve will be most affected by these changes.

Alberta's Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange made an announcement to the province regarding funds put in place to help students who may have fallen behind in learning because of the pandemic. 

"Without a doubt, learning in this pandemic has been a challenge for the entire education community in Alberta." says LaGrange, "We know that being able to respond effectively to the needs of students as the public health situation changes is essential to their success."

LaGrange announced two initiatives as part of the continuing supports to meet the challenges of COVID intended to help students catch up on learning after being disrupted by the pandemic. 

The first initiative, aimed at young elementary students, offers a total of 45 million dollars from the provincial government for school authorities to address learning disruptions caused by COVID-19.

This funding, according to LaGrange, will be distributed at a rate of $490 per student for literacy or numeracy support. Some students may qualify for both, and therefore, the school authority would receive $980 per student for those students.

"This support will allow schools to increase supports to improve reading, writing, and numeracy skills for younger students who have fallen behind during the pandemic," says LaGrange. 

School authorities completed literacy and numeracy assessments earlier this school year and will be using this funding to offer focused programming that goes beyond classroom learning such as small groups, one-on-one supports, involving parents in more programming, and hiring more staff.

Based on feedback received from school authorities, the initial focus of this programming will be aimed at students in grades 2 and 3 beginning this fall. Targeted supports for students in grade 1 are expected to start in February of 2022, once their assessments have been completed.

The second initiative is for grade 12 students who are expected to write diploma exams this school year.

"We have heard the concerns from students and others about the stress and anxiety about the academic achievement during COVID, particularly with high school students writing diploma exams," LaGrange says.

The weight of the grade 12 diploma exams will be lowered to 10% for this school year. 

According to LaGrange, the experience of writing an exam is important for high school students especially when it comes to admission into post-secondary education, so the provincial government felt it was important not to take diploma exams entirely off the table. However, because of the added stresses of the pandemic, LaGrange says the provincial government recognized that the weight of the exams should be shifted. 

"Since March of their grade 10 year, many have transitioned between in-person and online learning multiple times and may not have written an exam at all."

The change in exam weight will only apply to this years diploma exams. Provincial achievement tests for students in grade 6 and 9 will continue as normal.