Government passes big test
Published Saturday August 9th, 2008
The debate over the teaching of French in the anglophone school system will likely be remembered as one of the big political tests of the Graham government's first mandate.
When Kelly Lamrock, the Education Minister, first proposed changes to the French immersion program, he touched off a political firestorm. While New Brunswickers were quietly proud of being Canada's only officially bilingual province they became vociferous when they believed that proposed changes to the early immersion program threatened their children's ability to become bilingual. The issue ended up in court.
In rendering his judgment the judge didn't take issue with the government's decision, but did object to the duration and depth of the consultations. To the government's credit they did not launch an appeal and they used the judge's ruling as an opportunity to bring all stakeholders and experts to the table for a series of frank and in-depth discussions. These meetings were tempered by the reality that for years now New Brunswick has been last in the country in terms of the academic performance of its students. The issue had been studied on a number of occasions and to varying degrees each new report pointed to streaming in the anglophone school system, an unfortunate byproduct of immersion, as one of the reasons for the poor test scores. Clearly the issue had to be addressed.
Change is difficult at any time but changing something people care passionately about is one of the toughest things to do politically.
In a perfect world things might have been rolled out a little differently. However, we've ended up with significant reforms to the education system; reforms that are designed to move us quickly toward the province's stated goal of having one of the best education programs in the country.
What came out at the end of this process was a better solution for all concerned. Not everyone got exactly what they wanted but today on all sides there is a much better understanding of the system and how to make it better.
French second language reform is just part of the equation. More physical education, art and music have been restored to the early grades. There are new opportunities for enrichment. The trades are being reintroduced to the classroom. The government has created a host of community schools and an innovative learning fund that engages teachers.
The new system will have to be monitored very closely to make sure it is achieving its goals and politicians must not be afraid of more changes if they become necessary.
The Tories, on the other hand, can't seem to figure out what's best for the education system.
Former education minister Madeleine Dube, according to her comments in the media this week, seems to think the current system is working just fine. Unfortunately, the facts don't support this premise.
Madame Dube has yet to explain why the Lord government was afraid to fully confront this issue. Once again, don't hold your breath.
The Graham government has survived its first serious crisis. There have been lessons learned from this exercise that will not be quickly forgotten.
The decision to revise the original French immersion program proposal leaves no doubt that the Graham government was listening to New Brunswickers and as a young, twenty-something New Brunswicker stated recently during a television interview on the issue - democracy is alive and well in New Brunswick.
Marcelle Mersereau is a former Liberal MLA and past president of the New Brunswick Liberal Association. she served as Frank McKenna's deputy premier.
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Comments (12)
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''The Graham government has survived its first serious crisis. There have been lessons learned from this exercise that will not be quickly forgotten.''
I say:
Wait until the next provincial election. The Liberals will see they have not survived because the public will have not 'quickly forgotten' when votes are cast.
It is shameful for this former Liberal (or anyone else) to be spinning Lamrock's Plan B into a success story.
Lamrock's Plan B is a Department of Education disaster and a political failure.
With the FSL curriculums already planned out, it is clear that Lamrock's Plan B was hatched a long time ago.
Madame Mersereau, the NB Liberal government has lost all credibility with this Education fiasco. You too are clearly out of touch with the Will of the People.
Mme Mersereau, Mr. Lamrock, Mr. Graham and the rest of the Liberals: You thought that after the March decision and a tiny bit of protest the issue would die and you'd be able to carry on with your changes unimpeded. Well, you were wrong, and if you think that we will forget in 2 short years, I for one can't wait for the shellshocked looks on your faces when you are defeated soundly in 2010.
The test results for NB have been amongst the worse in the country since the school boards were abolished and all the power and authority transferred to the senior staff at the DOE. The changes have to be made where the problems are. There was very little problems with EFI. The major problem according to the government was the number of special needs children in core French classes. Nothing has changed except replacing the words Core French with English Prime. Changing words is hardly a solution.
I and many, many NBers agree with you.
From the get-go, any money spent on Education Reform (eg. Croll-Lee Report) should have and should focus on the delivery of adequate ressources for students with exceptionalities. That is the area where students require the greatest investment.
Aside from that, changes are needed in the functioning of the Department of Education.
To begin with, I would like to see the Minister's 'Royal Perogative' abolished.
I also think this province needs a permanent Education Consultation Group representing populations from every Provincial District, so that the public can access an official channel in order to voice concerns regarding Education matters.
Every province has immersion, but only NB seems to have such a crisis with streaming. Perhaps streaming is an unfortunate byproduct of inclusion. Since the MacKay Report, our education system has tried to be much more inclusive than other provinces, but in the anglophone system our resources don't seem to have kept up with that.
Comparing our students' test scores to those of other provinces that don't have such an extent of inclusion as NB is comparing apples to oranges. Performance in NB is based on a much more varied range of abilities. Exploiting the presence of these more challenged students in our system to hold lower test scores over our heads while making sweeping cuts is low indeed.
These students need more resources to be accommodated and welcomed, not shamefully used to fulfill a government's agenda.
It is the PEOPLE of NB who have passed the big test and the Liberal government has FAILED!
All of your spinning cannot and will not make the NB Liberal government look good.
Do you honestly believe that we will forget:
-that the Minister hired non-experts, who produced a totally discredited report which reached a predetermined conclusion based on myth and not solid research?
-the Minister accepted all recommendations of the totally discredited report, and vehemently refused to pay attention to the public's appeals for him to consider fact, reason, research and experts?
–a Minister who instead responded with arrogance and bullying by attempting to unfairly discredit opponents to his incompetent plan, by repeatedly calling NBers names and defiling their character publicly without cause or justification?
continued below.....
-a Minister who attempted to discredit a very honourable Ombudsman, who was once the leader of the Minister’s very own Liberal party?
-a Minister who refused to listen to the Ombudsman’s recommendations, & who completely dismissed the very evident and disturbing facts revealed in the Ombudsman’s report?
-a Premier & all Liberal MLAs who throughout this entire fiasco, fully supported the out of control Minister of Education publicly, as the democratic process was denied in NB?
-our letters and phone calls to the Premier and the Minister, which were replied to with a standard form letter stating untruths & misinformation?
-that NBers, who could ill afford to do so, had to pay from their own pockets & go to court to fight their own government to have a democratic process carried out in NB?
cont'd
-that the Minister refused to listen to the pleas of the AEFNB, the Ombudsman, the CEC, CPF & other groups & individuals who requested the delay the decision for a year in order to allow for the time and opportunity needed for the collaboration of relevant experts & others to come up with the best possible plan for NB?
-that experts, parents and other citizens sacrificed their time, efforts and money in an attempt to make an arrogant and dismissive government listen to facts and research?
-that many TRUE Liberals spoke out privately & some spoke out publicly asking the government to reconsider the FSL changes but the Premier and the Minister of Education quickly and arrogantly dismissed them. They never listened to the party faithful, the experts, the citizens, the Ombudsman, or anyone else until the COURTS FORCED THEM TO DO SO.
-that many of the children of this province who are entering grade 1 in a few weeks have not been given fair notice of the elimination of the EFI program which they were enrolled in until August 5th?
-that English students entering grade 1 who do qualify for the French school system have now missed the Francisation program for kindergarteners, and will now miss out on EFI as well because the government unfairly refuses to grandfather these children with the rest of the school system and did not give them sufficient notice to so they could have attended the Francisation program in kindergarten?
-that the public still doesn’t have any idea of what the new middle immersion program will look like or what percentage of the program will be offered in French?
cont'd below