Report a start but still not enough

After reading the front-page articles regarding the Nova Scotia education system in the Cape Breton Post on Wednesday, I found the recommendations to be a good start. But can grandparents and parents become really enthusiastic about the way Cape Breton’s children must be educated for 21st century work and find the votes to have them implemented?

Five years ago, Port Day speakers in Sydney suggested to our mayor’s team, private sector players and public sector players how to upgrade the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s (CBRM) higher tech opportunities.

The speakers also recommended providing the right talents and investment to help CBRM change, upgrade and develop the experience and education systems of our community for new and better times.

Although we had enough talented people to develop Donkin, the North Sydney ship repair yard and a variety of small higher tech companies, we were and still are very short of the wider knowledge, experience and skills required to develop a huge Sydney container port that will take 5-10 years and thousands of person years of work to complete.

Moreover, to make it happen and keep it going long term our over-40 year-old citizens with grandchildren in school must become more interested in seeing and voting for what new career possibilities are ahead for all Cape Breton kids in school.

Therefore, with most of our voters predominantly over 50, very few understand that the children of their under-40 off-springs will need much better education from teachers who can provide the upper scale outcomes our children need today.

For example, closing 16 local schools is now a more important parental issue than what and how their children will be taught and by whom in the schools that will remain open because too few voters over 50 realize their kids and grandkids need to move upscale from the 50 per cent level that Cape Breton’s grade 10s averaged on a national exam six years ago.

Therefore, introducing and meeting global K-12 public school levels is essential. But school administration consultant Avis Glaze, who delivered this week’s education report, found we aren’t delivering it. Jim Peers Sydney