There are a lot of challenges for British Columbia’s education ministry on the horizon, from educating the youth to fill the growing need for skill-related jobs to improving secondary school completion rates for aboriginal youth.
During a telephone conference call with northern media, Education Minister George Abbott said a positive step this year is full-day kindergarten for all students in the province.
“This is a big step forward from our perspective,” he said, adding the enterprise cost about half a billion dollars. “It will have a positive impact in terms of future education results.”
The province is also making a move towards personalized learning, which includes many elements from the early identification of either physical or cognitive learning challenges to opening up different paths for students that align more readily with interests leading to employment opportunities.
Currently, Abbott said, B.C. graduates about 80 per cent of its students, and with the aid of personalized learning, that number should increase.
In contrast, slightly more than 50 per cent of aboriginal students are expected to graduate from the province’s schools.
“B.C. has the best rate in the nation, but we are still well below what we should be achieving.
There has been just over an eight per cent improvement in completion rates for aboriginal students in the past decade, he noted, but progress has been too slow.
“We need to keep building on that,” he said, adding the province allots school districts supplemental funding to aid in this goal.
School districts use the supplemental funding to make sure all students, including aboriginal students, learn fundamental learning skills from kindergarten through Grade 4 so they can achieve success in higher grades, Abbott said.
Preparing students for employment in skills related jobs is also important for the province.
In spite of the economic recession, the minister said there has been growth in areas, such as mining, construction and forestry. Equipping the youths of the province to fill what has been projected to be about a million job openings in this sector is important.
“First and foremost, we want every young British Columbian to have the opportunity to participate in the work force.”
Accomplishing this means continuing to work with post-secondary and private-sector partners.
Abbott noted there will be few, if any, school closures in the next year. There will be some school replacements and remediating in the upcoming months, although the economic climate has presented challenges.
On the negative side, he said the province is right in the midst of contract negotiations with the teacher’s union.
“They still seem very far apart in terms of demands and expectations.”
The impact is that while students are going back to school as planned and teachers will be at work, the educators have withdrawn from doing the administration portion of their jobs.
DeLynda Pilon is a Prince George Free Press writer.
