More questions than answers at town hall
Catholic trustees worried about financial burden on schools
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 6, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Concerns over funding, overworked teachers, and not enough guidance counsellors were some of the issues raised at a town hall meeting Wednesday night on the territorial government's plan to overhaul its education system.
Parent Tanya Pariseau describes her concerns to John Stewart, director of the GNWT's education renewal, during a town hall meeting Wednesday night on the GNWT's new education strategy. She fears teachers are becoming overworked. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo |
The meeting, organized by the three school boards operating in the city and the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment (ECE), was held to begin the public consultation phase of the GNWT's Education Renewal and Innovation Framework: Directions for Change.
Tabled in the legislative assembly on Oct. 31, the 60-page document outlines a 10-year guideline for improving the school system across the NWT, addressing themes such as academic achievement, social passing, inclusive schooling, early childhood development, human resources, and cultural integration.
More than 100 people showed up to listen to John Stewart, director of education renewal and innovation with the education department, talk about the strategy. Later, approximately 20 people stood to ask questions, make complaints, and give suggestions.
Yellowknife Catholic school trustees Amy Simpson and John Dalton asked where the money would come from. Both were concerned that funding the eventual direction of the strategy would be downloaded onto the school districts.
When Simpson asked, "Will there be new money for this project?" Stewart was unable to make a commitment.
"I'd love to be able to confirm additional funding, but I can't," he said.
Dalton made it clear he believes the financial resources should come from the territorial government.
"I hope they will hold the department and the government accountable to allow this program to be rolled out across the territories as quickly as possible and not at the expense of any particular region, or organization, which will benefit from it," he said.
Rose-Marie Jackson, a substitute teacher with Yellowknife Catholic Schools and former trustee, said she was disappointed the strategy did not address special needs programming.
"We need to ensure learners experience supported and personalized, quality education," Jackson said.
"My suggestion would be that all programs for teachers work toward obtaining their special education specialist qualification and I strongly recommend that teachers in the NWT obtain a course at a university to train them for special education.
"My experience with teaching education did not prepare me for the classroom - every teacher is a special education teacher and the needs of the students are increasing."
She added the courses are under $650 and can be done at home and that ECE should provide funding.
Stewart said the current system of education, which is like a production line, can distract teachers from realizing that all students have different needs. He hopes that the renewal of the education system, with a focus on personalized learning, will open possibilities for teachers to achieve a better understanding of students' need.
Parents were mostly concerned about how changes would affect their children and whether they would add additional responsibilities to teachers - such as the recently passed anti-bullying bill, which includes school penalties specific to bullying.
"What I'd hate to see is all of this responsibility being pushed onto the teachers. There's a lack of guidance counsellors in the schools, so my concern with all of this is that the work is going to be put on already over-worked teachers and the problems are going to get worse," said Tanya Pariseau.
Stewart said the "how to" part will be the key step and if the government proposes exciting and good ideas, but does not equip those ideas with sustainable support then the entire renewal is irrelevant. The burden can't shift in an unsustainable way to a new group of people within the system, he said.
Members of the audience were given large cue cards on which they could write their hopes for the education strategy, and the challenges they saw in making those hopes reality. The cards will be read and included in the final research stages leading to the drafting of ECE's action plan for renewal, which the department plans to have completed by next spring.
