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NDP call on UCP to halt ‘botched’ curriculum pilot

Education minister encourages Albertans to provide feedback
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FILE - Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said Albertans want a stronger K-6 curriculum and that’s what the UCP will deliver. (Photo by Government of Alberta)

Alberta’s NDP want Education Minister Adriana LaGrange to face the fact that the elementary curriculum pilot should be scrapped.

“We’ve known for three months that an overwhelming majority of school boards voted against piloting this botched curriculum,” said NPD education critic Sarah Hoffman in a statement.

“Fifty-six of 61 districts, representing almost 95 per cent of all students, have rejected this curriculum. This includes public and separate boards, urban and rural, in northern and southern and central Alberta, and all of the Francophone boards.”

Only three districts have agreed to pilot between one and three of eight subjects. Two others are open to letting individual teachers pilot material if they choose to.

She said it’s time for the education minister to admit there will be no curriculum pilot in the 2021 school year, and commit to delaying implementation until after the 2023 election.

Related:

UPDATE: Red Deer Catholic joins other school jurisdictions that won’t be piloting new curriculum

In an e-mail statement LaGrange said the draft curriculum is just that — a draft — and all Albertans are encouraged to provide feedback which will help refine the draft before its implementation next fall.

“Alberta parents told us loud and clear in the last election that they wanted a stronger K-6 curriculum that focuses on basic literacy and numeracy and that’s exactly what we intend to deliver,” said LaGrange.

Related:

Education minister’s office responds to report advisers on controversial curriculum to be used again

Hoffman said the curriculum draft is full of factual errors, it delays the teaching of residential schools to Grade 5 in violation of the calls of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it’s not age-appropriate, and it’s focused on an obsolete model of memorizing dates and monarchs in European history.

“This curriculum has been condemned by parents, by teachers, by Indigenous leaders, by Francophones, by racialized Albertans, and by students,” Hoffman said.

“I’m calling on Adriana LaGrange to say that she has finally heard these voices.”



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