Education Minister Introduces 10-point Plan for Education

In a news release today, Education Minister, Thomas Lukaszuk, announced a 10-point plan for education. This plan came out of the Education Act consultations that were open to the public from late November to early January. The Minister hopes to move ahead on these initiatives in the coming months.

The 10-point plan for education includes:

Practical improvements to enhance students’ experiences

-Reducing travel times for students who spend more than one hour on a bus will help improve the school experience. A trial project in one school division will identify bus route efficiencies and improve transportation services. Another trial will look at enabling students to better use technology when they travel.

-Creating more opportunities for students to earn credits in high school and post-secondary programs at the same time will help them be successful in their chosen career. A provincial dual credit strategy will be developed to help school boards develop stronger programs. Separately, a new project will provide apprenticeship training to teachers so they are better equipped to teach advanced dual credit courses in Career & Technology Studies.

-Updating design specifications will mean government can better support communities when we build new schools. New school design specifications will better accommodate health-related services, community sports programs, and wheelchair access.

-Developing a better process for building playgrounds at the same time as new schools will mean that children can be active sooner.

Stronger partnerships to set the right foundation for the future

-Reducing the administrative burden for established, effective charter schools will mean that they can focus on their students.

-Working with the federal government will better co-ordinate support for First Nations students. Our focus will be on enhancing literacy and numeracy skills, with a focus on students in Northland and band schools adjacent to Northlands.

-Creating a stronger voice for parents in the education system will supplement the work of school councils. Working with the Alberta School Councils’ Association, new initiatives will be developed to strengthen parental input and new materials will support the department’s online interaction with parents.

-Providing better information about what the school system is doing, accomplishing, and spending will increase transparency, clarity and accountability. More efficient and relevant reporting from school boards will help identify information and ways to present it that are useful for Albertans.

Reviews to set the stage for future decisions

-Reviewing provincial achievement tests, first so that we can find better ways to understand how students, schools, and the system are doing and then so we can use that knowledge to improve students’ success. The review will be launched by spring 2012, and provincial tests will continue for students in grades 3, 6 and 9 until the review is complete and any resulting changes are made.

-Reviewing the learning benefits of full-day kindergarten and identifying operational issues will help us better understand the implications of a possible future programming change.

The Education Act will be reintroduced at the spring sitting of the Legislature.