In the News April 9

Defending Public Education in Alberta

Curriculum Reform Must Serve the Public Interest

“Ditch the Draft” curriculum action, Edmonton, April 2, 2022.

The United Conservative Party (UCP) government of Alberta has declared that a new K-3 curricula for Language Arts and Math will be introduced to Alberta schools in September. Implementing the new curricula is strongly opposed by educators and others, with an estimated 90 per cent of teachers against it and almost all Alberta school districts refusing to pilot it. Indigenous nations have rejected it.

A September 2021 report by the Alberta Teachers’ Association, citing fourteen specific problems with the draft curriculum, called on the province to stop the implementation plan and review its new curriculum from start to finish.

Alberta curriculum reform is definitely an urgent need, with a number of curricula now well beyond their best-before date. The elementary science curriculum, for example, is 24 years old and the elementary art curriculum is 35 years old.

The UCP is trying to ignore that this ossified state of educational affairs results from the 44 years of Conservative governments from 1971 to 2015. These governments continuously starved education of needed funds in order to subsidize the mostly foreign-owned energy companies which continue to dominate Alberta’s economics, politics, and culture.

The real question amid all the turmoil over curriculum is who should the new curriculum serve? Based on the dubious backgrounds of their hand-picked “curriculum advisors,” the UCP government obviously thinks it should reflect their neo-liberal ideology which serves the interests of the foreign-owned Alberta energy industry.

In contrast, the people of Alberta want the curriculum to serve the public interest. They want it to include what will help create a society which is humanized in all aspects and where the people can participate in making the decisions that affect their lives.

(Workers’ Forum, posted April 9, 2022)