Sides differ on education report
An anxious uncertainty has once again been hanging over the province’s public school system.
“Our education system is in a very fragile state right now,” said Halifax school principal Jacqueline LeVert. “If we keep having uncertainty and chaos, it only hurts the children. That’s the most disconcerting thing.”
Education Minister Zach Churchill, too, spoke of uncertainty when he met with reporters late last week.
“Change breeds a high level of uncertainty, particularly where there are structural and administrative changes happening, and that uncertainty has led people to believe that there are worst-case scenarios that could happen,” he said.
The structural change was prompted by the province’s decision to accept all 22 recommendations of an education report from Avis Glaze. The report advised the elimination of the seven English-language school boards, to be replaced with one provincial advisory council made up of people appointed by the minister. The report also recommended removing principals and vice-principals from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and placing them in a separate professional association.
“That isn’t, of course, the case, that people who come out of the union won’t be protected, that their salaries and benefits will not be there,” Churchill said in describing some of the misinformation that is out there. “That’s not the case. We’re just going to keep working to get accurate information out.”
Despite a report that educators who are openly critical of the Glaze recommendations could be disciplined, Churchill said no such directive was issued by his department.
LeVert, principal of the Primary to Grade 5 Ecole Beaubassin school on Larry Uteck Boulevard, said the uncertainty has pushed her toward a decision to return to the classroom as soon as possible despite the minister’s promise that administrators will be given a year from the passage of new education legislation next month to make up their minds.
“I can’t trust that in that year my choice will still be there, that I will have much choice on what classroom I go into,” said LeVert, who works with 600 students at Beaubassin. “I think I will have less choice in a year.”
LeVert, who has been an administrator for 10 of her 25 years as an educator, said a move back to the classroom would result in a personal pay cut of about $15,000 per year.
“No amount of pay is worth taking a risk of staying in a position with no support,” she said.
The Nova Scotia Teachers Union said last week that it intended to take a strike vote on Tuesday, Feb. 20 (after this newspaper’s press deadline) in response to the province’s planned unilateral changes to the system following its acceptance of the Glaze report. The union indicated that it would consider some sort of job action.
Last year, the union deployed a work-to-rule strategy, which included withdrawing extracurricular services in protest of the government’s decision to impose a contract on its 9,600-members.
“I don’t want to hypothesize on what the vote is going to be on Tuesday,” Churchill had said last week. “We don’t know what that vote is going to be. The conversations that I’ve been having with principals and teachers have been very productive. A lot of people are open to these changes and they just want to be certain what it means for them in their work.”
The government could impose fines on the union for any illegal action.
Churchill has been touring the province, meeting with principals, board members, SAC members and teachers.
“I believe that there is not really a consensus on what reform in education needs to look like,” the minister said. “That’s reflected in a diversity of opinions that are being expressed to me from teachers, from principals and community members. Our objective is just to make the best decision that we possibly can that will help our kids.”
NSTU president Liette Doucet, meanwhile, had this to say last week: “While it is positive the minister is willing to keep the lines of communications open, it is unfortunate he is still not open to doing the proper thing for our education system.
“In essence the government’s position has not changed. As I have stated before teachers are not prepared to allow Stephen McNeil to do to our schools, what he has already done to our hospitals,” she added. “The Glaze report as presented will bring chaos to our education system at the expense of students. What is worse is that the government has taken our public education system down this path without any meaningful consultation. Our position remains the same, the government needs to halt the implementation of the Glaze report, and collaborate with teachers, students and parents to help create meaningful change in our schools.”
She said the NSTU had been hosting community meetings for the past two weeks and it is clear from these discussions that the public is not comfortable with the government’s implementation of the Glaze report.
Doucet believes the way the government has gone about implementing its plan is nothing short of “unreasonable and irrational.”
“A responsible government does not throw the entire education system into chaos based on a hastily prepared consultant’s report that has not been seen by the public,” said Doucet. “There is still plenty of time for the Premier to do the right thing—put a stop to legislation— and start a transparent and reasonable process to improve education for students and their teachers.”