N.W.T., Nunavut get input on Alberta K-12 curriculum

Territories have been using the province’s teaching plans for years

For the first time, two northern territories will have input into the Alberta school curriculum they have been using for decades.

At a meeting Monday in Yellowknife, education ministers from Alberta, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories agreed educators from both territories will take part in Alberta’s ambitious K-12 curriculum redesign.

“I think this is a great stepping stone for all of our jurisdictions working together,” said Alfred Moses, the N.W.T.’s minister of education, culture and employment.

Of particular interest to Alberta are the territories’ steps to include lessons about residential schools in classrooms and training all territorial school staff about that particularly dark chapter of Canadian history.

Alberta Education Minister David Eggen has said mandatory lessons about residential schools will be part of the province’s new curriculum.

Following recommendations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Eggen announced last June the province would train all 42,000 Alberta teachers how to teach indigenous history and perspectives.

The commission spent six years collecting stories and evidence of systemic assimilation, and physical, sexual and emotional abuse of indigenous people at residential schools.

It released a series of recommendations to make amends, including better educating all Canadians on the schools’ history.

Alberta is about to begin an unprecedented, six-year overhaul of the K-12 curriculum across six subject areas in both English and French simultaneously.

Educators from all three jurisdictions will also discuss how to make curriculum more accessible and adaptable for people living in isolated communities, Eggen said.

In Yellowknife Monday, the three ministers discussed how they can adapt curriculum to better accommodate students who leave, then return to high school, Eggen continued.

They also want to collaborate on a pre-kindergarten curriculum that will help ensure more four-yearolds are developmentally ready for school.

Improving graduation rates is of particular interest to the Northwest Territories, Moses said. David Eggen

Although the high school graduation rate is 83 per cent in Yellowknife, fewer than half of students in some small communities are convocating, he said.

The Northwest Territories has used Alberta’s high school curriculum since the late 1970s.

Today, it also uses Alberta’s curriculum for K-12 math, English, physical education, and career and technology studies, as well as Grade 7-12 sciences and social studies.

I think this is a great stepping stone for all of our jurisdictions working together.

The territory expects to send about a dozen people to Alberta to assist with design of curriculum.

Nunavut has used Alberta’s school curriculum since the territory’s creation in 1999.

Today, it uses Alberta’s math, science, English language arts and health curriculum, according to the territory’s education department.

The ministers also renewed agreements for the two territories to continue using Alberta’s standardized tests.

The territories pay Alberta for producing, grading and reporting on the exams.

Eggen signed two new five-year agreements Monday afternoon for N.W.T. to use Alberta’s provincial achievement tests and diploma exams, and for Nunavut to use just diploma exams, said Eggen’s press secretary, Larissa Liepins.