New Brunswick's current Education Minister, Dominic Cardy, promised New Brunswicker's in 2014 if elected, he would address the 'No-Fail Policy' in provincial schools that see academically struggling children promoted to the next grade level regardless of academic ability or performance. He pointed this out as a problem within the public education system leading to many students being ill-prepared for college or university. And he promised an overhaul to address this issue (see below link to CBC interview).

As such, he argued for a need to give decision-making power to individual principals, teachers, and parents, "… rather than having a bureaucracy in Fredericton decide that one size fits all, that because you started school in 2000, you are going to graduate in 2012", he said. Yet, in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit New Brunswick, causing disruptions for classroom learning, Dominic Cardy rolled out a provincial-wide 'policy' or directive that saw no retentions (No-Fail) for New Brunswick students; but rather, all students, regardless of circumstance, ability, or performance, will be 'socially' promoted to the next grade level. Is this not a one-size-fits-all approach? And is this not an example of bureaucracy in action? And what has happened to parents, teachers, and school administrators' decision-making power concerning what they feel is in the child's best interest?

Putting Covid-19 aside, many children start public school with delays in their development and would greatly benefit from having a year to catch up, to be retained a year in the public school system. For instance, we know that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not meet developmental milestones on the same timeline as their typically developing counterparts (i.e., they learn to sit, crawl, self-feed, walk and talk later). These delays often become the impetus to seek assessment and diagnosis for ASD for parents. Similarly, academic learning milestones are often met on a later timeline than children without delays or ASD. Still, given the appropriate interventions (i.e., such as retentions to have a year to catch up), they often succeed and become more confident as learners.

It is well documented that front-loading support and interventions in early educational settings yield the best educational outcomes for children. On the contrary, pushing children through the public school system before they are ready is detrimental to their success and learning confidence. Moreover, it often closes doors to post-secondary education in the long term when they have been on a modified educational program, and subsequently, this impacts later employment opportunities.

Taking away parental rights to make decisions in the best interest of their child is an insidious abuse of power. Elected officials are supposed to represent and honour the peoples' interests and needs, not disregard them by implementing broad-sweeping directives and policies, not taking one-size-fits-all approaches. And certainly not by taking away parental rights to make decisions for their children.

I am encouraging you to support this petition to give parents and teachers their rights back to make decisions in the best interest of their child[ren] about retention and repeating a grade level. 

See: CBC Interview February 11 2014

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/no-fail-policy-in-schools-needs-rewriting-argues-ndp-1.2532803