Victoria practicum students face challenges with restrictions, vaccine eligibility during an unusual year
Graphic by Sie Douglas-Fish.
Due to the challenges of COVID-19, post-secondary practicum students in Victoria have faced an unusual year. While many students have still been able to access the hands-on learning that practicums provide, they have faced difficulties around compliance with and clarity of public health guidance, decreased hands-on experience, and ambiguity around vaccine eligibility.
According to Ralf St. Clair, dean of the UVic Faculty of Education, the pandemic has created a tense environment around practicums.
“There’s a higher level of anxiety and worry,” said St. Clair. “There’s certainly worry on the part of the schools about having people they don’t know that aren’t part of the regular bubble suddenly coming into the school, and I don’t just mean teacher candidates. I mean the university supervisors who would usually go in and observe the c
Students plan to be at the district’s Boleskine Road offices from 4-7:30 p.m. playing their instruments. Their efforts will directly precede Monday night’s school board meeting, which is being held virtually.
The board is facing a $7-million budget deficit, and proposed music-related cuts would save over $1 million. Services for gifted students and meal programs are among other possible cuts.
Cedar Hill Middle School music teacher Cindy Romphf, who is president of the Greater Victoria Music Educators Association, said the student musicians will gather in small groups to ensure COVID safety.
“We are also doing a car rally,” she said.
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“And that’s a $5-million question, so we think that’s extremely positive for our local context right now,” she said. It’s not clear whether there’s enough funding in the budget to avoid programming cuts entirely, Howe said. Due to the deficit, the Greater Victoria School Board has been discussing cuts to music programs, education assistants, meal programs and programs for gifted students. Students, parents and teachers have expressed concern at the potential cuts, with one class at Lansdowne Middle School holding a roadside concert last week to show its support for music programs. The annual K-12 budget in B.C. is rising to more than $7.1 billion, a hike of about $500 million from the 2019/2020 budget. However, with about $1.1 billion of that being absorbed by wage increases and enrolment, “it’s essentially status quo,” said Kevin Kaardal, president of the British Columbia School Superintendents Association.