LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- April 24, 2007
To The Editor;
Between May 7 and 18 this year, students in Grades 4 and 7 will sit squirming, restlessly fidgeting with unease, in their seats while writing Foundation Skills Assessments, (FSAs) whose major purpose will be to enable the Fraser Institute to rank schools.As a Grade 4 teacher, I was always dismayed at the time taken away from teaching and learning by the administration and writing of FSAs. In my classroom, children have broken down in tears while writing FSAs. This symptom of test anxiety is not an unusual occurrence nor is it exclusive to low achieving students. Other teachers have reported children in their classrooms crying over the FSAs. The greatest test anxiety is often exhibited by the more capable students.
Teachers would prefer FSA tests be administered on a random basis to students to evaluate the provincially prescribed curriculum. Testing every grade 4 and 7 student every year is time consuming and expensive.
The cost of administering FSA tests to Grade 4 and 7 students every year is very high. This money could be better spent providing textbooks for all Grade K-12 students or decreasing class sizes to allow for more individualized instruction.
I believe in ongoing classroom assessment that allows me to adjust my teaching for the learning of my students. Assessment for learning not assessment of learning. Large scale assessments like FSA tests measure some aspects of learning; they do not help students learn or teachers teach. Weighing a pig doesnıt make it fatter.
Children need more time learning and less time wasted on unnecessary bureaucratic testing. I encourage parents to write a letter to their childıs principal asking that their child be withdrawn from Foundation Skills Assessment.
- Robert Tarswell, Princeton
Hon. Peter MacKay, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Dear Minister MacKay,
Thank you for your reply to my email about my concerns with Passport Canada.
It has already been four months since Passport Canadaıs processing times jumped dramatically due to the new rule in the US stating that all people traveling by air to and from the US require passports. For Canadians applying for a passport by mail, the processing time has jumped from 20 working days last fall, to two months in January, to three months presently. The situation appears to be getting worse.
In your letter, you wrote that evaluations are done on a regular basis to decide whether or not to open new passport offices. What is your evaluation now? Canadians are waiting too long for their passports and people living in rural Canada have to incur huge costs to travel to a Passport office in order to get a passport quicker than the three months it is taking now. It is obvious that there is a need for more fully operational Passport Offices.
You have also indicated that the Receiving Agents Program that allows Canadians to go to designated Canada Post and Service Canada locations gives more convenient access to passport services for Canadians from all regions. These offices only look over the application and forward it to a Passport Canada office. They do not actually process the application and they are not much faster than sending the applications in the mail. They provide the same service that all of our MPs constituency offices do. In addition, our reports from the Kelowna Service Canada office indicate that staffing levels were not prepared for the volumes of passport applications they are receiving. Although it is better than nothing, this service is not good enough.
As expressed in my last letter to you on this subject, I am still concerned about the following issues which have not yet diminished and do not seem to be going away anytime soon:
- Canadians who need to get a hold of Passport Canada about their application are not able to get through to them either by phone or email because the lines are always busy or emails are not returned;
- Rural Canadians are once again the most penalized. Due to slow processing times, many constituents who applied in a timely fashion are being forced to lose days of pay, and pay hotel and travel costs to travel to a city-based Passport Canada office where they can apply for express service;
- Canadians find themselves in day-long line ups at what few Passport pick-up offices exist in each province;
- Constituents are loosing thousands of dollars in lost flights;
- Our constituency office, and I suspect most other MP Constituency Offices, are spending at least 50% of their time processing passports applications and answering questions from desperate Canadian travelers; therefore, we are not able to get to other critical casework in a timely manner; and
- Staff in our constituency offices are not receiving the assistance they require to help our constituents in a timely fashion, due to understaffing of Passport Services in this time of high workload (Please rest assured we have the highest regard for the staff in Passport Services and believe they are working beyond their limit in trying to assist Canadians.)
These issues need to be addressed and creating more Receiving Agents is not the answer. Canadians need more Passport Canada offices with full operational capacity. Although Passport Canada has hired more staff and encouraged retired employees to come back to work, the present situation is not working for Canadians.
We all know that the passport issue is with us for quite some time. Soon, Canadians will need passports to drive to the US. In the near future, every Canadian will need a passport if they plan to leave the country. With passports only valid for five years, this situation will keep repeating itself. We cannot have Canadians waiting three months for a passport. That is three months that they cannot travel for work or to visit family. We need to find a way to remedy this situation now.
Times have changed. If Passport Canada cannot meet the needs of Canadians by operating strictly on passport fees, perhaps it is time for our Federal Government to assume more responsibility by providing additional funding so Canadians can receive a reasonable level of service. This might also be the time to explore the option of ten year passports. Whatever the best option is, it needs to be addressed now.
Thank you for addressing this major issue that is affects all Canadians.
Sincerely,
- Alex Atamanenko, MP BC Southern Interior
