More school PD days recommended

Teachers on P.E.I. should be receiving more training throughout the school year, says the Education Governance Commission, and that could mean shorter school days or a longer school year.

The commission, whose report was made public last week, wants government to make room in the calendar for more professional development for teachers. Currently, five days are set aside when teachers devote themselves to learning and children get the day off school.

"It's insufficient," said commission co-chair Bill Whelan.

"Those jurisdictions where professional development is embedded, ongoing on a regular basis in the school calendar, students in those jurisdictions do much better."

Lauren Gill-O'Brien has been teaching at Vernon River Consolidated for 10 years and has confidence in her abilities, but she acknowledges there's always more to learn.

"We can't get enough of it," said Gill-O'Brien.

"Even after 10 years I'm still trying to do a better job and assess students better. New curriculum comes out, new resources come out, so we're constantly trying to better our teaching."

The commission is recommending a big increase in PD days. It suggest schools could follow other jurisdictions, and block off a half day every week for PD or one day every two weeks. But Whelan said it is important not to lose instructional time, so school days would have to be extended, or the school year made longer.

The P.E.I. Teachers' Federation would like to see more professional development, but it believes that more effective teaching could make up for lost instructional time.

"It's the quality of time spent with the children in the classroom versus the quantity of time," said federation president Gilles Arsenault.

While more professional development would be a good thing, said Vernon River School principal Dave Wood, he worries about the problems that could be created by a system that had kids going to school for just four days every other week.

"You don't want to put added pressures on parents as well," said Wood.

"You have to look after childcare too, on top of that, so every second Friday they have to find somewhere."

The commission's report does push for more of another kind of professional development too, that would not require getting kids out of the classroom.

It suggests having mentors that move from school to school, working alongside teachers in the classroom. Wood thinks that may be a better solution.

The province has not yet responded to the professional development section of the commission's report, and will only say at this point that it is considering its options.