LAKELAND - Alberta Education recently released a voluntary pilot program for teaching staff across the province to implement. Locally, school officials with Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) say the program is putting unnecessary stress on staff and students.
The announcement, which was released on May 17, includes three curriculum outlines for subjects designed for Kindergarten to Grade 6 students in September. The pilot project aims to have school divisions across the province provide feedback on the material so the Curriculum Implementation Advisory Group, in charge of advising the Minister of Education, may make adjustments prior to the compulsory final draft which is being released in phases for all K to Grade 6 students and to be completed in fall of 2024.
Adding more uncertainty to the lives of students and staff after two long years of a pandemic is not something that local district officials are willing to endorse, said Terry Moghrabi, NLPS’ associate superintendent of curriculum and programming.
“We’ve had our kids go through a lot of changes over the last two years already,” Moghrabi said.
The announcement includes $6.5 million in resources for staff across the province to be able to implement Science, French First Language and Literature, and French Immersion Language Arts and Literature programs while subsequently providing feedback to the Minister of Education. While the financial incentive might attract attention at first, Moghrabi said it’s not in the division's interests to add a large workload on teachers.
Changes on the way
This April, the province announced that all K-3 classes will have to implement the new Math and English courses, while all K-6 classes will also have a new phys-ed program rollout. Considering that this fall there will already be compulsory changes, adding anything more across the division will be challenging, he added.
“We are going to limit the number of changes these students will have to go through by not piloting either of those curriculums,” he said after discussions with NLPS Superintendent Rick Cusson who had an opportunity to sit down with the province following the recent announcement.
“Our staff have gone through a series of pressures during this time of transition between the pandemic and through the new curriculum, for that same reason, we are not going to be expressing our interest in piloting those programs,” said Moghrabi.
NLPS Board Chair Karen Packard agrees saying it is a huge, unreasonable ask from the province.
“While some of these teachers will be implementing new curriculum, to also (take on this) pilot at the same time is a very big ask,” said Packard.
Working with teachers
Currently, Moghrabi noted the division is working with teachers to support them and garner feedback on the initial changes expected this fall and in the future. However, considering the provinces database where learning material can be found to support the transition is quite large, it will take time.
“They announced that there are about 100 resources per subject on the new Learn Alberta site,” for the fall school year and currently the division is working with teaching staff to get feedback, he said. “Now we are asking some key questions on what they think in terms of what they would recommend for resources and maybe what some alternative resources could be as well…to see what we want to invest in.”
Moving forward with the challenges, trustee and recently retired teacher, Lois Philips, commended the effort of not implementing any unnecessary new changes. She thanked Cusson and Moghrabi for recognizing the adversities teachers and students have had to overcome over the last two years.
“As a newly retired teacher, I appreciate the fact that that’s a lot of pressure on people that have already been through a lot.”
