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Issue 1
Thursday, February 8, 2018
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Connecting the dots across
13 education systems
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Nova Scotia will eliminate its seven school boards
A few weeks ago, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education, Zach Churchill, announced that the Ministry will be dissolving its seven school boards - with the exception of its Francophone board - in favour of a single provincial advisory council. The decision was made following recommendations from consultant Avis Glaze, who conducted a system administrative review over a three-month timeline. Superintendents would remain in their positions, as well as existing administrative structures, although school board leaders would report directly to Nova Scotia’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. In her report, Glaze characterizes the roles of the province’s school boards as confused and unclear. Reaction to the report was mixed. Nova Scotia education pundit Grant Frost reacted scathingly to this report, finding it ridden with errors and disagreeing with the statement that Nova Scotia does not fare well on Canadian and international rankings, and suggesting that the stipulations within the report are fuelled by right-leaning stipulations for the purpose of dismantling public faith in public education. Commentator Paul Bennett suggests that decentralization - autonomous and self-governing school councils - would be a wiser course of action. Minister Churchill has already embarked on a first course of action by sending a letter to school boards outlining that they must request permission from the Ministry before they can make changes in a number of areas, including programming and operations. Liette Doucet, President of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, has criticized the decision as an attack on teachers’ collective rights, while narrowing in on the removal of principals from the teachers union and the creation of a teacher’s college. Twitter hashtag #NSTUnited has emerged, with Nova Scotian educators demonstrating dismay against the measures taken following the release of Glaze’s report. Hashtag #glazedover has also appeared.
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Les sept conseils scolaires de la Nouvelle-Écosse seront éliminés
À la suite d’une évaluation de l’administration des écoles publiques de la Nouvelle-Écosse, le Ministère de l’Éducation a annoncé sa décision d’éliminer ses sept conseils scolaires régionaux existants par un seul modèle administratif par lequel les surintendants seraient responsables devant le Ministère de l’Éducation directement. La décision ne s’applique pas au Conseil scolaire acadien, le seul conseil scolaire francophone de la province. Cette évaluation a été menée, sur une période de trois mois, par la consultante indépendante Avis Glaze, Ph. D. Son rapport présente plusieurs recommandations ayant pour objectif d’améliorer la façon dont les écoles publiques de la Nouvelle-Écosse sont administrées.
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Un conseil scolaire de langue française en Ontario reconnaît des territoires autochtones
Le Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l’Est ontarien a tenu une cérémonie afin de reconnaître les territoires autochtones sur lesquels leurs écoles sont situées. Au cours de l’année scolaire, 34 plaques seront ainsi placées aux murs de plusieurs écoles. Cette initiative a pour but de valoriser l’identité et l’intégration des élèves autochtones, et ce, tout en renforçant des relations affectives avec les collectivités des Premières nations de la région. Ce projet s’intègre à la Stratégie d’éducation autochtone du Ministère de l’Éducation de l’Ontario qui vise à combler le fossé entre les résultats scolaires des élèves autochtones et non autochtones.
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L’utilisation des téléphones portables à l’école remis en question
Selon La Presse, Vincent Duguay, un élève de 15 ans en quatrième secondaire à l’école Charles-Gravel à Saguenay, a envoyé une mise en demeure destinée à sa commission scolaire exprimant son désaccord avec la pratique de confisquer les cellulaires des élèves. Le jeune homme n’est pas contre l’interdiction de l’usage des cellulaires en classe, mais plutôt quant à la pratique de les confisquer pour une durée de 24 heures, ce qu’il trouve extrême. En France, selon Le Monde, le ministre de l’Éducation nationale Jean-Michel Blanquer a réaffirmé l’interdiction des téléphones portables non seulement en classe, mais bien également pendant les pauses et dans les cours de récréation, ayant pour objectif d’encourager les rapports interpersonnels.
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Another newly-released survey suggests a shortage of guidance counsellors in Ontario’s schools
People for Education has released a report entitled Guidance counsellors: expanding roles, limited access, indicating an average ratio of 826 students to 1 guidance counsellor in 10% of Ontario high schools. In 26% of high schools, principals indicated that guidance counsellors’ most time-consuming task was providing individual counselling to students with mental health needs.
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Student mental health and well-being is high on the agenda in Atlantic Canada
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has signed onto the national “Roots of Hope” suicide prevention project in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which focuses on providing specialized supports, research, training, and education campaigns. The Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education has also announced plans to develop a mental health framework for high school and post-secondary students, aimed at allowing Atlantic provinces to share information among each other while creating province-specific initiatives. PEI has also committed $2M to reduce a waitlist for student psychological assessments, which currently has a backlog of 435 students on a waitlist of 3.5 years.
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Here’s Paul McGuire’s take: “The stigma surrounding mental illness is a big problem especially for principals and superintendents who actually witness many people suffering from mental health issues – teachers, students, parents.”
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New recommendations have been put forward to support transgender and gender non-conforming students in Quebec
In light of amendments to Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Civil Code in June 2017 following the tabling of Bill 103, a list of recommendations have been released to support transgender and gender non-conforming students. Key recommendations include having schools refer to students by the pronoun of the students’ choice, and allowing them to use the washroom of their choice. Numerous ministries of education have released guidelines in the recent past, including Nova Scotia (2014), Alberta (2016), and Manitoba (2017).
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Community health organizations are calling for Canadian school systems to teach children about consent
Some sexual health educators and community sexual health centres are calling for the need to mandate lessons on consent in provincial curricula. Ontario’s revised health and physical education curriculum, released in 2015, embeds the concept of consent.
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