GuelphToday received the following letter from Klara Gotz regarding the Upper Grand District School Board's IB Program
Dear GuelphToday,
My name is Klara Gotz and I live in Guelph. I am writing to respond to the UGDSB exploring expansion of IB Program to North Wellington article.
It’s fantastic to hear that the IB program will potentially be expanded across the region. That said, the Grade 11-12 IB program at GCVI has a preparatory program in grades 9-10 which prepares students for the rigors of IB. Santana pointed out this program would likely be cut at GCVI.
It is true that there is a 50 per cent drop out rate early in the program, but I see that as normal given students of that age are figuring out what paths they would like to take in life, and as those with teenagers would attest, this often means meandering through different possible pathways. My worry is cutting IB prep will mean students are not sufficiently prepared for the rigors of IB, particularly for those students whose families are unable to afford private tutoring. Over time this could lead to the degradation of the core 11-12 IB program and would also allow the elite in our society to buy their way in through high-cost tutoring over the grade 9-10 years.
On June 25, 2024 our school trustees will vote on whether the grades 9-10 IB prep program is cut in 2026, meaning if you have a child who is in grade 6 or younger today and you wanted them to come to GCVI they will not have an IB Prep program available to them.
If you would like to sign a petition that aims to preserve prep and make the IB program accessible to more families in the community, please follow this link. We already have over 200 signatures.
As a final thought, I suspect at least the higher income portion of the 135 families who have their kids in IB prep could contribute $3,000 rather than the current $2,000 for the program if it meant keeping IB prep in existence to help cover the $100,000 the board is currently covering. The higher payment could be means tested to ensure only those families who can afford it would pay the higher amount. By comparison a Kumon membership currently costs me >$1,500 a year and IB Prep is a full day program.
Thanks for continuing to report in our community, it’s so important these stories are publicly discussed.
Klara Gotz
Guelph
