Student success comes first!
Last July, the Ministry of Education announced that they wouldn’t extend the government measure allowing Quebec schools to receive, without charge, a class subscription to Netmath. The school principals of the Commission scolaire des Trois-Lacs (CSTL) then made the choice to support themselves – with the budget of their respective schools – in the renewal of the School Board license for Netmath. A nice initiative to keep the odds in their favour in ensuring student success!
We spoke with LISE BÉLISLE, Educational Advisor to the RÉCIT at the CSTL, about the reasons for this mobilization to keep Netmath in their schools.
In 2012, the Ministerial measure 50750 for “digital educational resources” came into force. A great opportunity for teachers and their students who were able to enjoy a proven mathematics support tool!
Since the implementation of this measure, 70% of the Commission scolaire des Trois-Lacs’ school students use Netmath, and it should be pointed out that the CSTL brings together some thirty primary and three secondary schools, representing a good number of budding Netmathematicians! Moreover, the CSTL was working on the implementation of a project which was planning to provide help for early school leavers, sick children or those in sports-studies programs by developing on Moodle, an online course platform, a mathematics course for students in Secondary 1, 2 and 3. With several exercises in this course being linked to Netmath the license renewal was essential.
For Lise Bélisle, the assistance provided by the platform for students and teachers is undeniable.
“Netmath in our schools has become a must to ensure success in mathematics”, she says. “Moreover, it is an essential digital tool with the arrival of digital boards in classrooms. It is also a huge time saver for teachers.”
Indeed, teachers and directors of the CSTL’s institutions eagerly awaited the Ministry’s decision on the extension of the measure. Disappointment! The late announcement that they wouldn’t renew the measure called into question not only the project of the CSTL, but also the work of mathematics teachers who had integrated Netmath into their courses for the next school year. What to do? Dispense with a tool that, in one year, had become an essential course support for teachers and students?
All the school principals then gathered and quickly made the choice to take charge, through their respective school budgets, in renewing the School Board license for Netmath. The decision was not easy, given the tight budgets of the institutions. But student success comes first.
“It was almost inconceivable not to renew Netmath”, confides Lise Bélisle.
The entire Netmath team happily welcomes back students and teachers from schools of the Commission scolaire des Trois-Lacs for a new year rich in mathematics adventures!
