Education changes needed to catch N.B. kids up to rest of Canada: minister
Urgent changes are needed before New Brunswick's education results can catch up with the rest of the country, Education Minister Kelly Lamrock says.
According to the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment, New Brunswick ranked 10th in Canada in science, seventh in mathematics and ninth in reading.
"We are lagging behind kids in every other province. Other provinces are doing better in a sustained way year over year," Lamrock said Wednesday.
The results aren't good enough for the province, said Lamrock, who is calling formajor changes to ensure New Brunswick students are keeping pace with other Canadian jurisdictions.
"We've got to address tough systemic problems like classroom composition," he said.
"We've got to invest aggressively in inclusion and put the resources behind it. We've got to make early childhood a concern so that every child has an equal chance to learn, and we've got to start insisting not just on more money for the status quo, but more money for the teachers and teaching methods that are getting results."
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development survey concluded that Canada's 15-year-olds are among the world's best in science, reading and math when compared against their peers in 56 other OECD countries.
Students in Alberta were significantly above the Canadian average, while students in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia performed about the same as the Canadian average.
But students in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan performed significantly below average in science.
New Brunswick ranked last in Canada in science, second-last in reading and third-last in math.
The test results from 2006 are from before the Liberals took office in September of that year. The test results didn't improve when compared to 2003 when the Conservatives were in power.
Conservative MLA John Betts, a former teacher, said there were many reasons why his party wasn't able to improve the numbers while in office.
"We have an integrated system," Betts said. "We have an inclusive system. Not all jurisdictions include children that have special needs; they don't include all behavioural children."
Teachers will have important role: minister
Lamrock said the Liberal government will concentrate on the early grades to ensure that students leaving Grade 5 have mastered the tools to learn.
Teachers will play an important role in improving the situation, Lamrock said.
The current teachers' contract expires in February and talks between the government and the teachers union are scheduled to begin in 2008.
"We're going to need everybody in the negotiating table focused not on what helps government, not on what helps make things easier for teachers and adults in the school," Lamrock said.
New Brunswick Teachers' Association president Brent Shaw said he is disappointed with the minister's suggestion that educators haven't been putting children first.
Teachers bargained hard during the last contract negotiations for more help for teachers with special needs kids in their classes, Shaw said, which would make things better for teachers and kids.
"We are actually one of the few unions that probably negotiate for things that are improvements to children's lives in our classrooms, not simply the adults in the system."