This 2025-2026 school year has experienced quite significant changes affecting the lives of British Columbians across the province. The British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), one of the province’s largest public-sector unions which represents over 25,000 government workers, had gone on strike for eight weeks from September to October. During these weeks, several critical services and supports were on halt, directly affecting the timely execution of British Columbia’s Provincial Numeracy and Literacy Assessment Exams. We will break down why this strike began, what the Numeracy and Literacy Assessment Exams are, and how this specifically may impact the education of BC’s children.
BCGEU Strike Breakdown
BCGEU’s contract had expired in March 2025 and negotiations were stalling since January 2025 due to demands of “general wage increases matching or exceeding inflation, improved grievance processes, elimination of outdated job evaluation plans, fewer arbitrary exclusions, and fairer telework policies.” (Global News) Communication between BCGEU and BC Public Service Agency (PSA) broke down in July 2025.
The strike began September 2nd and later on we saw many unions uniting to strike together. A tentative agreement and return-to-work agreement was finally reached October 26th, followed by ratification voting from November 6th to 13th.
For more details on the strike, you can visit: Public Sector Bargaining BC 2025
Present Impact on Education in British Columbia
Why did this affect British Columbia’s provincial assessment exams? For starters, the support and administration required to administer such crucial assessments relies heavily on many government employees who are represented by BCGEU. Originally, the strike was intended to have only limited government workers on strike.
For 8 weeks, more workers had been impacted; the strike escalated as many administrative and logistics roles were also reduced in operation: these are roles critical to running important provincial assessments in order to be conducted and supported in an efficient and accurate manner. This led to the difficult decision of cancelling the November 2025 BC Provincial Numeracy and Literacy Assessment Exams.
Before the strike, the BC Provincial Numeracy and Literacy Assessment Exams were intended to be held November 3rd to 7th. They have now been rescheduled for January 2025 (specific dates will be mentioned later in this article).
The Importance of Provincial Assessment Exams
Students in British Columbia must take assessment exams in order to meet the provincial Graduation Program requirements. Without these scores, students can not obtain a high school diploma in the province. The scores from these assessments are not merely for collecting data; the scores are also helpful tools to provide insights on where students may need extra support and inform on how to shape educational policies and instructional strategies in the classroom. Such analysis and implementation can benefit the students, the educators, and the Ministry of Education on the betterment of British Columbia.
The compulsory assessment exams are the Grade 10 Literacy Assessment (LTE10), the Grade 10 Numeracy Assessment (NME10), and the Grade 12 Literacy Assessment (LTE12). Though not course specific, the assessments allow an evaluation of a student’s competency in literacy and numeracy level, ensuring that these are on par to provincial standards for graduation.
The Grade 10 Literacy Assessment (LTE10) serves as a checkpoint of literacy, while the Grade 12 Literacy Assessment (LTE12) acts as a final measure of literacy before graduation. Both require students to analyze and make meaning from various texts and to communicate their understanding through written responses. This showcases a reflection of variable competencies including communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving in real-world applications.
The Grade 10 Numeracy Assessment (NME10) serves to focus on the practical real-life application of numeracy capabilities and concepts learned from Kindergarten to Grade 10, rather than mere memorization. In order to showcase real-life application, students are asked to use five key processes: interpret, apply, solve, analyze, and communicate. This brings numeracy beyond the classroom, and into its use in the real world.
The Potential Future Impact
The assessments listed above serve to ensure that knowledge accumulated through a student’s education can be applicable into their future, while meeting British Columbia’s standards and expectations. In the article “Math and Reading Scores Are Declining in BC. Why?” by Katie Hyslop, we see a trend in scores though British Columbia is still ranking high in the country. Scores and ranking have dropped internationally for the last 20 years. Luckily, the Grade 12 Literacy scores seem to be static with relatively high-ranking scores. Read the full article here
Not so static, are the scores with younger students in numeracy competencies: British Columbian students’ math skills have declined by about two grade levels over the past 20 years, with a 42-point drop in PISA math scores from 2003 to 2022. Notwithstanding this vulnerability in BC’s student numeracy capabilities, the strike may exasperate this. We will be lacking information about numeracy competencies for 2025, making necessary evaluations that lead to policy and curriculum adjustments stalled.
Inconsistent tracking means not obtaining the necessary feedback needed and in turn harms the chance of early intervention for struggling students. This causes a disruption when it comes to student preparation as well, since the only assessment dates for the school year (the Numeracy Assessments: January 15–16, 2026 and the Literacy Assessments: January 21–22, 2026) is around the same time for many secondary students’ Final Exams of Semester 1 courses and Midterm Exams of Full-Year Courses. This may add extra pressure on students in BC and inadvertently, have a negative impact on both the students’ course exam marks as well as their BC provincial assessment exams scores.
What to Do?
Education is a complex machine that needs fine-tuning to operate well. In place of playing a blame-game, a holistic approach is required to solving potential challenges we are currently facing. Let us find solutions that help all parties involved who have been affected to navigate January 2025 with strong support systems. It will be extra pressure for the administrators, logistical staff, ministry staff, educators, school staff, and more importantly, our future: the students.
By BCEIC