ask THE PEOPLE

WE ASKED: We asked people across Nova Scotia what is the number one problem with the school system and how should it be fixed?

Bradley George Sydney

“I feel like you learn a lot about stuff that you are never going to use in life, really. Especially with us in carpentry. Why do I need to know about mitochondrion and stuff like that? How do you set up a savings account, how do you go get a credit card, how do you file taxes? You have to rely on someone else to teach you. You don’t learn that in school.”

Chris Jordan Kentville

“The biggest problem currently facing Nova Scotia’s school system is the presence of management, meaning principals and vice principals, within the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, and that removing them is the answer. The principals have to realize that … they’re management, and (that) in every other union, management isn’t part of the union. So, separating them out from it, if they could work that out, things would probably be OK.”

Shannon Hodgson Lower Sackville

“There’s too many children for one teacher in a class. I think that kids should be divided up equally. There should be 16 per one teacher and not over, because they don’t get enough one-on-one time.”

Gayle Turnbull Truro

“The number one issue … is probably accountability within the school. If we are taking the principals out and replacing them with managers, then we are creating a two-tier system that doesn’t work. I guess the principals don’t have as much influence in the school, and they are acting more as managers ... I think we have to keep the principals engaged in the classes so they know what’s going on.”

Shawn Heighton Westville

“My belief is that there’s just a lack of communication. The two sides just won’t come together but the only way it will get fixed is if they talk to each other and understand that there has to be give and take on both sides.”