Support for Teachers

For Immediate Release. MHA, St. John's North  noted the annual arrival of Education Week with congratulations for the province's teachers, staff and students and a demand for government to make our students' school experiences even better. "I am delighted that the Minister will be at a St. John's school this morning to launch a week dedicated to celebrating education, particularly as the theme this year is tech knowledge-tech savoir. Technology is certainly an increasingly vital part of every classroom, and of every student's life.

The MHA had some words of advice for the Minister. "It's important to keep in mind that education of children does not happen in a vacuum. I think there are no better teachers anywhere than in our province, but I still hear from them that they feel a lack of support from government. I urge the government to look closely at the Newfoundland-Labrador Teachers Association's pre-budget submission. The NLTA represents the people on the front lines of education" he said. Our schools need more teachers, along with the student assistants and other professionals who deliver student support services and all those people need ongoing training and professional development in this rapidly-changing world.
 

"There are still critical areas needing attention, and we must allocate fiscal resources so we can hire teachers to address those needs. Finally, in a week time, celebrating technology in education, we have to pay more than lip service to the need for teacher professional development and inservice on integrating technology into teaching and learning. All the technological advancements in the world will not help our students if teachers are not fully prepared to help them learn".

Time to Make Changes in Education

My letter below was published in The Telegram on June 14. The end of the school year is an opportune time to reflect on how to best improve the quality of public education in Newfoundland and Labrador. Now more than ever, our children deserve an education system that does not leave a single child behind. Considering our relatively small population and our significant bounty of available natural resources, we can create the best education system in Canada, one that can be held up as an exemplar for the rest of the world. We have excellent teachers and excellent schools, and we have an excellent opportunity to build on our recent successes and create long-term prosperity. It’s time to provide a school environment that will enable our students and teachers to achieve even greater heights of success.

Kindergarten improvements. Full-day kindergarten programs are an excellent place to begin a new round of school reform. While many forward-thinking jurisdictions are introducing full-day kindergarten, our government continues to dismiss its benefits. In addition to its long-term educational benefits, including improved academic skills, full-day kindergarten would be a welcome reprieve for working families contending with the crushing cost of childcare and the disruption to the regular working day. While government continues to question the cost, children and parents are paying the price.

Flawed and outdated formula. Our schools continue to struggle with an outdated and flawed teacher allocation model. While the model places government’s education spending in the best possible light, it does not allow for the real teacher needs for French language education, special needs programming, senior high school courses and small rural schools. The formula fails to recognize the diverse needs of our various school communities. The problem is evident to teachers and parents. An independent review of the process of providing sufficient teacher resources is long overdue.

Time for innovation. Despite the efforts of excellent teachers and schools, government has not shown suitably strong leadership on providing schooling innovations. This is evident in the situation faced by students who, for academic, social, personal, and other reasons, do not complete the senior high school curriculum by the end of Grade 12. While many of these students demonstrate their eagerness to graduate by returning for a fourth year of senior high, about one-quarter still do not graduate. For two decades, parents, educators and community leaders have been calling for alternative schooling options that work for at-risk and gifted students alike. Instead, too many of our students, despite their promise and unique abilities, continue to fall through the cracks.

Looking at alternatives. Alternative schools are a necessary innovation that will go one additional step toward ensuring the possibility of success for students who have not thrived in the traditional school environment. It is a small investment that could provide a lifetime of return for many of our struggling students. At a time in our history when the demand for skilled labour is increasing, government should be ensuring that each and every young Newfoundlander and Labradorian has the opportunity to join in our collective prosperity, to maximize their opportunities, and to achieve meaningful employment. Not one of them should be left behind.

Words of Encouragement

This message made me smile: Hey Dale! What up! Good to see you today! (even if it was for a sad occasion... but that struggle continues). Anyhow here's the story I said I was going to email you about. So I got on the plane last week to head from Halifax to St. John's, and wound up sitting next to this dude, an older fellow, who I think was sort of a construction contractor. Anyhow, we got to talking, and I was wearing my favorite (union) jacket, so eventually we started talking about unions.

Anyway, he said that for most of his life he'd been adamantly, viciously opposed to unions and fought against them whenever possible. But recently he'd had the chance to take some courses at university, including one in the Education faculty that had touched on labour issues. He said then he'd totally changed, he now realized the important history of unions and the importance of the struggles and accomplishments labour has made, and now he's convinced that everybody needs to know about how important unions are and how everybody needs a union.

Anyway I asked him what this magic course was that had changed his mind and who taught it, and he replied "It was taught by that fellow who went and got himself elected Dale Kirby." Anyhow I thought you'd appreciate that. Seems you certainly changed some viewpoints! I didn't let on that I knew you and he proceeded to speak of how much he loved your course, said you were one of the most well prepared profs who knew his stuff that he'd ever had. Anyhow just thought I'd pass that on! With my personal thanks that I didn’t have to sit next to a union-hater for the hour and a half flight.