Ex-Wildrose leader vows ‘back-to-basics’ approach to education
Jean says he would scrap NDP curriculum review and defend parental school choice
CALGARY Promising a “back-to-basics” approach to education, United Conservative Party leadership candidate Brian Jean said Monday he’d be prepared to scrap the NDP government’s current curriculum review.
Speaking in Calgary, Jean promised if elected he would restore mandatory provincial achievement tests for third graders, emphasize the basics in mathematics at an early age and defend parental choice by encouraging private, charter and home-schooling options.
The former Wildrose leader also said he would work to improve financial, historical and energy literacy in Alberta’s curriculum.
He told reporters the review of the provincial curriculum currently underway is a waste of time and resources.
“We don’t particularly know where they’re going to end up with the curriculum review. So let’s find
out where it is, let’s not waste that money ... but we need to get back to basics and at this stage, based upon the signals I’ve received and in particular just some of the direction I’ve seen this government go in education, I would suggest we would need to set aside the curriculum review if it’s ongoing.”
The fledgling UCP, formed as a new party by the July votes of Wildrose and Progressive Conservative members, will select its new leader in October. The next provincial election is slated for 2019.
The $64-million curriculum review was launched by the NDP government in 2016 and, if approved, some new lesson plans could be in place by 2020.
Education Minister David Eggen has said the overhauled curriculum will deal with topics including Indigenous history and culture, computer coding, climate change, mental health, and sexual and gender diversity, while emphasizing the fundamentals of math, reading, and writing.
But it has become a prime target for conservative critics, with Jean’s fellow UCP leadership candidate Jason Kenney accusing the NDP of “social engineering” through the review.
Kenney has also said he would cancel the curriculum review but later said he would wait to see the results.
Eggen has accused Kenney of “lying large” in his claims the revised curriculum would end up ignoring Canada’s military history.
And in a statement provided by his office on Monday, Eggen said Jean is “a tangle of contradictions” because the curriculum is being rewritten to bolster the financial, history and energy literacy that he says he wants to see taught to Alberta students.
“This rewrite is very important work and frankly it is long overdue. Our children deserve a curriculum that is current and I find it disappointing to hear that Mr. Jean would put our children’s futures at risk in an effort to score cheap political points.”