MONTREAL

Quebec adds three pedagogical days to the school calendar for pandemic planning

Published Thursday, October 29, 2020 9:28AM EDT Last Updated Thursday, October 29, 2020 12:53PM EDT

A vacant desksa are pictured at the front of a empty classroom is pictured at McGee Secondary school in Vancouver on Sept. 5, 2014. School districts in British Columbia are scrambling to hire an unprecedented number of teachers ahead of the new school year to adhere to reinstated class size standards. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)

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MONTREAL -- Quebec is adjusting the school calendar to add three pedagogical days in order to give elementary and secondary school teachers time to train and plan.

This decision was made, “with the aim of promoting the academic success of students in the context of the pandemic,” said Minister of Education Jean-Francois Roberge in a news release sent on Thursday.

School staff will be able to use these days off to improve their teaching methods, as well as improve their skills with technological tools, distance education and plan out the coming months.

Schools and school service centres will be able to decide when to use these three pedagogical days, according to their schedule and situations.

In order to avoid penalizing parents, the daycare service for the three days will be free of charge to all preschool and elementary-age children that are registered with their respective daycares.

The three days must take place by the end of the 2020-21 school year. Only one pedagogical day can be added in the same month.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2020.