Education Minister Dominic Cardy is holding consultations around the province to discuss his government's green paper on education. (Photo: Christina Mulherin)
About 100 people gathered at Riverview High School Wednesday night to share their thoughts with the province’s education minister.
Dominic Cardy heard from parents, students, teachers and former teachers about their thoughts on the education system.
Cardy says many still weren’t clear on proposed changes to the traditional grading system.
“A few misconceptions, some of them my fault, in the way that I wrote the green paper, talking about the gradeless years. Some people thought I meant getting rid of grades like we’re not going to mark the kids anymore. But no, this is actually school year grades. Having the chance to clarify that was a valuable part of this tour,” he says.
Cardy says hearing from students who are currently in the system was very important.
Concerns included things like the need for better mental health support and the lack of resources for both students with learning disabilities as well as those who are excelling.
“And I know that’s not a reflection of our teachers, it’s a reflection of an overly rigid, overly centralized education system that has in too many cases put bureaucracy above the educational needs of students. Things like that have been really important to hear because hopefully, those are things I can try and fix,” Cardy says.
Other areas of concern included a lack of resources for students with learning disabilities and a better French Immersion program.
“This fall, a handful of schools that will volunteer to try a different sort of french language program. We’ll evaluate that and if it works better, no one who supports french language training is going to object to doing something that works better. If it doesn’t work better, we’ll cancel it. I’ve got no problem admitting that I’m wrong and no problem saying that we tried something that didn’t work,” he says.
Cardy says a pilot project involving 12 schools will allow them to create a more effective program.
He says a document including feedback gathered from the consolations will be prepared at the end of the tour.
