Critics across the province have raised concerns over the past few weeks about the redesign of the Alberta education curriculum after it was revealed that major oil and gas companies are being consulted in the process.
According to a document on the Alberta Education website, Cenvous Energy, Syncrude Canada and Suncor Energy have been given key partnership status in “helping draft Alberta's future curriculum for our students.”
“It was only a few weeks ago that we, and consequently, all Albertans learned about this PC government's plan to give big oil and gas a major seat at the table to develop kindergarten to grade three curriculum and beyond. The outrage has been deafening,” said Deron Bilous, Alberta NDP Education Critic. “In that short time thousands of concerned Albertans have signed a petition opposing this incredulous position by the PC government.”
A petition with over 26,000 names on it was presented to Alberta Education two weeks ago in an attempt to have big oil and gas companies removed from the curriculum redesign process.
Although the idea has caused quite a stir throughout the province, educators in the Lakeland region don't see it as that big of a deal.
“Everybody has a stake in education. It is unfortunate that it is being presented in a fashion that oil and gas is a big player in the rewrite of the curriculum, which is not true,” said Arlene Hrynyk, Northern Lights School Division board chair. “Do we want everybody engaged to ensure we get it right? Absolutely. But the educators and the experts in the industry are those who will put the ink to the paper. Do you want to ensure that you are having conversations with communities as a whole and decide as a whole? Absolutely. Industry is a huge supporter of education in this province and we believe that to be necessary. They would be the first to tell you that they are not the people who can write education curriculum.”
Ron Young, Principal at Art Smith Aviation Academy in Cold Lake, feels that it is important for all industries to have a say in what goes into the new curriculum.
“It's the engineers and the doctors that are saying kids have to memorize their mathematics tables, that they have to know this and that they have to know that. Well I think that the engineers and the doctors are in the same boat as the oil companies. They are employers. They are letting us know what industry needs in the future. We can't say we shouldn't let the oil companies have a say but we should let the engineers and the doctors tell us what needs to be in the curriculum,” said Young.
“I think that when you actually listen to the message industry is presenting, whether it is the oil companies or whoever, the message they are presenting is one that everyone agrees with. We have to have kids with people skills. We have to have kids graduating who can get along and work in teams. That is the message they are giving us.”
Bilous and the NDP are concerned over oil and gas companies involvement in creating the curriculum because of the possibility for a conflict of interest when making decisions about what students are learning.
“We need our kids to be well-educated about our natural resource development, and that includes our oil and gas industries,” said Bilous. “But we don't need those corporations deciding what a student in the province should learn.”
Young disagrees with Bilous, feeling that people should actually listen to what it is the oil and gas companies are saying before jumping to conclusions.
“You get some political perspectives that just automatically say that because it is coming from an oil company it has to be bad. That is really what we are talking about here. It is people assuming that because it is coming from an oil company it is bad. That is not the case. Actually listen to what it is they are recommending and see if you agree.”
Young pointed out the role oil and gas companies already play in education.
“Northern Lights (School Division) has this building trades trailer, that is one of the most amazing pieces of equipment, that gets hauled around between Bonnyville, Cold Lake and Lac La Biche to expose Grade 8 kids to welding. The oil companies have literally put in millions of dollars into this trades trailer to expose kids to the trades,” said Young. “A few weeks ago we had two authors come in and talk to the kids and put on a half-day workshop that would normally cost $1,300. It was 100 per cent paid for by Cenovus Energy. They provided that for free to our school and at no time have they said in order to get this money you have to do this or that.”
Young also says that one of the reasons Art Smith still exists is because of the generous sponsorship contributions from Cenovus, CNRL and Interpipeline.
“There are just so many examples here locally where oil companies have put in millions and millions of dollars and never asked for anything in return,” said Young. “I never looked at the million dollars that Cenovus gave our school and thought that for that million dollars we are going to have to brainwash our kids into thinking that oil is a great industry and there are never any environmental disasters. There are never any attempts (by oil and gas companies) to subvert the educational process. It is all in support of it. The only direction that they provided was that they wanted to make sure that we gave a good science and math foundation for kids going forward.”
The Alberta Government hopes to have the new curriculum ready in time for the 2016 school year.
