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September 1, 2020 - No. 57
Discussion in Alberta on What
Constitutes Safe Schools
and the Right to Education
Widescale Opposition to Alberta
Government's Plan for Business as Usual
- Kevan Hunter -
Actions demanding the Alberta government take
action to ensure a safe return to school took
place in cities and towns across Alberta on
August 21, 2020. Photo above from Sherwood
Park.
• New
Curriculum Must Serve the People of Alberta
- Dougal MacDonald
Concerns in Quebec About a Safe
Back-to-School Environment
• A Proactive
Approach Is Required - Pierre Soublière
British
Students Take a Stand for Their Right to
Education
• Government Forced to
Back Down from Anti-Human Algorithm to Assign
Final Grades
• Callous
and Dangerous Stand of the British Government
on School Reopenings Is Unacceptable and
Indefensible
- Workers' Weekly
Discussion in Alberta on What
Constitutes Safe Schools
and the Right to Education
- Kevan Hunter -  
Since the Alberta government announced its reckless plan for reopening
schools in a "near-normal" scenario without corresponding provisions to
ensure student safety, opposition is developing all over Alberta.
Parent groups, students, teachers, education workers and concerned
citizens are all in motion, speaking in their own name in defence of
the right to a safe education. Groups such as Support Our Students, the
RAD Educators Network and physicians' group AlbertaDocs4Patients are
speaking out, as is the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA). Students
returned to classes this week. On August 29 Alberta recorded 184 new
cases, the highest number for a single day since April 30.
 On August 21,
pickets were held in front of the constituency
offices of about 27 of the 63 United Conservative
Party (UCP) MLAs, to demand a safe re-entry for
schools in September. Pickets took place from Fort
McMurray in the north to Lethbridge in the South.
They show a formidable force organized to demand
increased funding for education in order to have
wider safety supports for schools. The rallies
showed the determination of frontline educators
and workers, parents, students and many community
members to make sure there is a safe school
re-entry for the sake of all affected. Signs and
messages chalked on sidewalks reflect deep concern
that the government's plan to reopen schools
without social distancing and other necessary
measures at a time when community transmission of
COVID-19 is not under control will lead to
increased transmission.
A teacher in the riding of Calgary Bow stated;
"We really feel we are not being supported to do
the best job we can for our students."
Calgary parent Kyla Stack picketing in front of
Minister of Health Tyler Shandro's office said,
"Last year my youngest daughter's class had 38
students over the course of the year. There was no
room for the students to spread out."
Calgary high school teacher Stephen Yanover said,
"It is anger. It is frustratation. It is disgust.
It's just that they are doing nothing. They are
not listening to anyone."
A student attending the rally in front of Premier
Jason Kenney's constituency office stated, "It's
really not fair how students have to choose
between getting sick, not being healthy and
ruining their education."
Jason Schilling, President of the ATA, met with
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange on August 19
to discuss the ATA's concerns with the lack of
supports for a safe re-entry, but nothing changed
as a result. He also added that he believes those
on the front line of this re-entry plan, support
staff, teachers and principals "should have their
concerns heard because at the end of the day they
are the ones that have to deal directly with
students and parents."
Edmonton Southwest, August 21, 2020.
The ATA is presenting a seven-point plan which
includes the following:
- A working group that includes public health,
teachers, trustees and superintendents to develop
common standards;
- A clear plan for transitioning schools from
full-time learning to part-time or online learning
as required;
- Increased physical distancing through reduced
class sizes;
- Funding for enhanced staff, protective equipment
and HVAC improvements;
- Better plans for screening and testing of
students and staff; and
- Resources and supports to ensure the safety and
availability of substitute teachers.
Substitute teachers are particularly vulnerable
as they travel to multiple school sites. Teachers
in Alberta are not covered by the Workers’
Compensation Board, and substitute teachers lack
any benefits whatsoever to cover an extended
illness or complications from COVID-19.
How to reopen schools in a manner which
guarantees the right to education and ensures the
safety of students, teachers, education workers
and the community at large is a serious question
which requires broad public discussion and
involvement of the people. The voices of those
directly involved in the schools must be heard and
a process must be established which instills
confidence in the education system. Exceptional
circumstances require that standards and protocols
be upheld and used to find a way forward.
Instead, under the guise of local autonomy in
decision-making, the Alberta government is failing
to uphold the responsibility of the state to care
for the health and safety of all. The UCP response
is that parents have a "choice" as to whether to
send their children to school or not, and must
weigh the risks and benefits and decide for
themselves. Such actions can only further weaken
the public education system, which is precisely
what the UPC wants.
Into this void, people are stepping up and must
continue to step up and take social
responsibility. Keeping up this organizing,
speaking out with our demands for increased
funding and safety for all is crucial.
Lethbridge
Calgary Fish Creek; Calgary Glenmore
 
Calgary, Klein; Calgary Northeast
 
Lacombe
 
Edmonton, Southwest
 
Spruce Grove; Sherwood Park
Fort Saskatchewan
  
Fort McMurray
 
Grand Prairie
 
- Dougal MacDonald -
Alberta's United Conservative Party (UCP)
government recently released the names of eight
members of its curriculum review advisory panel.
This new advisory committee is not to be confused
with the still-existing 12-member curriculum
review committee formed in August 2019. The latter
is chaired by the so-called public education
reform representative for the Atlantic Institute
of Market Studies, a reactionary think tank taken
over in 2019 by the corporate-funded neo-liberal
propaganda outlet, the Fraser Institute. In a
rambling and somewhat incoherent speech on August
5, the committee chair reported that due to
COVID-19 the Alberta review committee essentially
had nothing to report, however he did extol used
car sales as a promising future career for
students.
 The Alberta
curriculum reform is definitely an urgent need,
with a number of curricula now well beyond their
best-before date. The Alberta elementary science
curriculum, for example, is 24 years old and the
elementary art curriculum is 35 years old. These
and other curricula definitely need to be
modernized so that students can make sense of
today's world. This ossified state of educational
affairs is the result of 44 years of Conservative
governments which have 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 UCP claim that both their curriculum review
committee and their new advisory panel are
"unbiased," which is quite ludicrous. The
12-member review committee includes no Alberta
teachers. However, it does include a former
Alberta deputy minister from the Getty and Klein
conservative governments, the co-founder of the
"free enterprise" Petrarch Institute, and an
American educator who champions private schools.
The bias of the eight-member advisory committee is
mainly shown by who is absent. Again, no members
of that committee are elementary school teachers
or staff. None are women, who make up 71 per cent
of school professionals in Alberta. None of the
advisory committee members are Indigenous. And
several members are closely connected with the UCP
or the ideology driving that party.
C.P. (Chris) Champion, for example, is the UCP's
social studies advisor on the eight-member
committee. He worked for the federal Opposition
Conservatives, Alberta premier Jason Kenney's
former party, for six years, serving as an advisor
to Kenney himself from 2007 to 2015. Champion
founded the right-wing Dorchester Review
in 2011 which he still edits, which claims to
"challenge the boring and politically-correct
vision of history often found in the media and in
academe." An authorless article from the first
issue, republished online this year, critiques
history curriculum introduced by "left"
governments. It derides an Australian history
curriculum as "light on facts and heavy with guilt
about Aboriginals and immigrants." The piece also
states that "in Canada the preoccupation with
victimhood has mostly centred on Japanese
Canadians and residential school survivors."
Champion has been published in the Journal of
Intelligence and National Security and is a
member of the Canadian Military Intelligence
Association.
Several UCP advisory picks are far removed from
their designated area of expertise. The advisor
for arts and literature is a lawyer who just
happens to sit on a theatre company's board of
directors, obviously to give legal advice. The
advisor for science is an associate professor of
computer science. The problem with the latter
selection is that there isn't any science in
computing science. A true science such as physics
or chemistry or biology studies and explains some
aspect of physical reality. It is not focussed on
how to build things; that is the domain of
engineering. What is mislabeled as computer
science might more aptly be called "computology"
the study of computational processes and how they
can be realized. The appointment of a
non-scientist to advise about science is
definitely a problem, especially when scientific
inquiry, the main approach to teaching school
science, is based on how actual scientists carry
out their investigations.
The context for the UCP's proliferation of panels
was the three-year process of curriculum reform
initiated by the previous NDP government, which
the UCP opposed from the beginning as having a
"left-wing bias." Interestingly, the Minister of
Education has, when interviewed, been unable to
give a single concrete example of the alleged
bias. Premier Kenney has also attacked the reform
process under the previous government as both
"biased" and "secretive," even though it gathered
input from thousands of teachers and the proposed
changes were published for all to see online.
 Kenney has also
repeatedly stated that the new curriculum should
focus on "foundational competencies," a phrase
from the world of job training which hearkens back
to the long-discredited back-to-basics movement of
the Thatcher-Reagan era, however he has never
clarified what those competencies actually are.
Kenney's equation of education with job training
should raise a red flag. Training implies a
one-way transmission of procedural knowledge where
the learner passively absorbs what they are told
rather than participating in the construction of a
broad, elaborated understanding. Critical and
creative thinking are ignored. Advocating
fundamental competencies as the main goal of
school education sounds suspiciously like an
attempt to promote indoctrinating students rather
than teaching them.
The real question amid all this political
infighting is who should the new curriculum serve?
Based on the composition of their committees, the
UCP government obviously thinks it should reflect
their neo-liberal ideology which serve the
interests of the Alberta energy industry. In
contrast, the people of Alberta think the
curriculum should serve the people's interests,
that is, it should 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, including the
decisions as to what the curriculum should be.
One thing is very clear. If existing curricula do
not adjust to changes and the needs of the people,
education will become irrelevant and obsolete,
thereby putting future generations at risk. But
education is a right which cannot be taken away.
That is why it is necessary to constantly question
how well the current curriculum is responding to
the needs of the people and to take the necessary
steps to continuously improve it in the people's
interests. The fight for a modern curriculum and a
modern education system must be part and parcel of
the fight for a new society that must be based on
the guarantee of rights for all.
Concerns in Quebec About a Safe
Back-to-School Environment
- Pierre Soublière -
As of August 31, Quebec students are back in schools from the
kindergarten to high school levels. Elementary and high school
teachers have been back at school since August 24, while students
began to progressively return later that same week, some for only
a couple of hours to pick up their books and others for half a
day, with some attending classes. The full reopening of schools
began on Monday, August 31. It was during the progressive return
period that reports emerged that a number of teachers had tested
positive for COVID-19. It has not been revealed when the teachers
were tested, nor when the results came in. The cases occurred in
elementary and high schools in the eastern part of Montreal and in
the Laurentides region.
At the high school in the Laurentides region, four teachers have
now tested positive. Close to 20 other teachers who were in
close contact with them were sent home for preventive quarantine.
They are expected back at school on September 10. Students in
grades 10 and 11 who had been in contact with these teachers were
also sent home on August 28 and were back at school on August 31.
 In
light of this, the Ministry of Education's decision that there should
be neither masks nor physical distancing in classes is considered most
inappropriate by many teachers, education workers and parents. The
Ministry suggests that those who want to wear a mask can do so which is
nonsensical and reduces the discussion and guidelines of what measures
are appropriate to take to nonsense as well because the efficacy of
wearing a mask is directly proportional to the number of people who
wear them. At a demonstration in Montreal on August 23, parents,
teachers and students raised that they did not understand why the
student-teacher ratio has remained the same while physical distancing
is required in all enclosed public places. Indeed, class sizes are
undoubtedly in stark contradiction to the requirement for physical
distancing, making the reopening anything but "cautious."
Experience with such exceptional circumstances tells us that we
must err on the side of
caution. To do that, a proactive approach is needed, one which
takes into account the reality
that the pandemic has not been eradicated and that there is always
the possibility of a
resurgence. Undoubtedly, those who are the most suited and
motivated to adopt a proactive
approach are those involved in education in one way or another:
teachers, support staff --
education workers and professionals, custodial staff, etc. --
students, parents and the local
community.
At the request of some
unions, Quebec's Ministry of Education recently published a
"document of the number of
positive cases in the School Boards between May 11 and June 3."
According to this, 43
students and 33 teachers tested positive for COVID-19 during this
period in which schools
reopened in various regions outside of Montreal. Generally
speaking, the number of students
was largely reduced because some parents had decided not to send
their children to school,
making physical distancing much easier to respect. Still, a
significant number of students and
teachers were infected. Instead of basing itself on this
experience, the Ministry of Education has adopted an approach
which treats students and educators who get sick as unfortunate
"collateral damage."
Schools are not islands cut off from the world. On the contrary,
because of their place in the
community, they can play a key role to stop the spread of the
pandemic and any resurgence,
the guiding principle being that those who are on the frontlines
must decide how things can
and must be organized in the safest way possible.
For example, according to collective agreements, there should be
health and safety committees
at the place of work. If ever there was a time to make sure these
committees are functional, it
is now. They can play a central role, starting with looking after
basics such as the efficiency
of ventilation systems and the condition of window screens so that
classrooms have maximum
ventilation.
Other things can be discussed such as the efficacy of face
shields. Should wearing masks be
mandatory in class, especially where physical distancing is
impossible? If so, would it be
possible to deliver certain subjects in alternate venues such as
gymnasiums or outside, weather
permitting, so that students can take a break from wearing their
masks? This spring,
pre-school teachers met with parents of new students at desks set
up outside. How effective
would transparent barriers be in classrooms, similar to the
cardboard barriers students use
when they want to concentrate or write an exam?
Obviously, the problems won't be the same at the primary and high
school levels. If students
are part of decision-making on how to live, work and learn in a
safe environment, they will
have plenty of things to propose. Other equally important issues
to consider are the presence
of nurses in each school, the taking of temperatures and COVID-19
testing.
Everyone has a stake in seeing to it that the learning environment
is as safe as possible. There
is already a shortage of teachers, and the prospect of renewed
closures and confinement due to
a COVID-19 resurgence arising in the school system is definitely
not what anyone wishes
for.
British Students Take a Stand
for Their Right to Education
 Students in
Britain are in action to oppose the Ministry of
Education and the Office of Qualifications and
Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) for the use of
an algorithm to grade graduating Advanced Level
(A-level) students and over-riding the
teacher-assessed grades, in the absence of final
examinations due to the pandemic. The algorithm
produced results, released August 13, in which
40 per cent of students' grades were below the
predicted results as assessed by their teachers
-- some students being marked down two to three
grades -- with the consequence that many lost
their place at university for the coming year.
The algorithm is also said to have failed some
students altogether if their school had poor
results in the past. Making matters worse, the
algorithm had a more pronounced impact on
students who had smaller class sizes, giving an
advantage to those in private schools.
Extraordinarily, over 21,000 students got
awarded a U grade, which is usually given to
students who do not turn up to the exam or write
anything in the exam. It had been reported that
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had been
warned six weeks earlier by Sir Jon Coles, a
former director-general for standards at the
Department of Education, that the algorithm
would only have an accuracy of 75 per cent;
Ofqual's own assessment was that its results
were only 60 per cent accurate.
On the release of the results, British students
immediately took to the streets across Britain
to defend both their own future and the
character and values of a modern education
system, with the full backing of teachers and
education workers and their unions, with the
result that the government was forced to reverse
its stand on August 17 and agree that grades
would be reissued based on teachers'
assessments.
Workers' Weekly indicates that "This is
a victory for the angered students, but it also
exposes the problems at the heart of the
education system which the pandemic has revealed
starkly. It has underlined how the right to an
education must be fought for.
 "The government
had thought that it could ride roughshod over
the right to higher education of A-Level
students because of the conditions of the
pandemic. The students have demonstrated that
the pandemic cannot be used as a justification
to play fast and loose with the lives of young
people.
"In fact, the battle continues, since in the
time between the downgraded results of the
Ofqual algorithm being announced and the
government backing down, students have been
making other arrangements to secure places at
universities that were not their first choice.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson on August
17 confirmed that a cap on the number of
students who can be accepted by universities
would be lifted, but universities require the
funding to take extra students. In addition, the
government, and the Education Secretary in
particular, refuse to be held accountable for
the fiasco, which has demonstrated the disregard
of those in authority for the future of the
lives of young people as well as the attempt to
negate the human factor. The demand now is that
university places be found for all students who
need them."
The government's actions in grading A-level
students is just the latest example of its
anti-social approach to education, especially
during the pandemic, that eliminates the human
factor, namely the role of teachers, as well as
to undermine the right of the youth to an
education.
As Workers' Weekly points out, "As
with every issue during this pandemic, in
particular the issue of the safe opening of
schools, the necessity for those concerned to be
involved in the decision-making process, and
indeed their right to be involved, has been
ignored or negated. And as with the issue of the
safe opening of schools and the implementation
of online learning, for example, the right for
teachers, lecturers, students and others
affected by what is decided to be involved,
together with the procedure for deciding which
students go on to university or further
education, has raised the question of the
character of education itself, and the
participation of the students themselves in
working this out.
Workers' Weekly concludes
that "The issue has also raised the question of how education should be
funded, in particular the funding for higher and further education.
There is a necessity for a turning point in the financing of education.
The whole issue of the character, values and funding of further and
higher education shows the need for a public discussion on how to solve
the issues. For some time, with the increase of the anti-social
offensive, all sectors of an all-round education required to
prepare the coming generation to take up its responsibility for
society, have been under attack, especially the humanities. In
addition, the imposition of fees, with students being saddled with a
life-time of debt, is being challenged. It is particularly galling for
the disadvantaged who, with working people as a whole, have been
treated with contempt by the ruling elite."
- Workers' Weekly -
The start of the new school year is rapidly
approaching, with the
expectation being that all children must return
to school from
September 1, as the government has decreed. At
the same time, teachers,
parents, schools and the education unions have
made it clear that all
the problems which are arising must be provided
with solutions by
placing the well-being of the people in the
first place. The express
aim must be to guarantee the right to education
for all within the
conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 The first key
demand is that the well-being of the people must
be
guaranteed under the conditions of the Covid-19
pandemic by ensuring
that the guidelines against contagion are put in
place. It is of the
utmost importance to take account of the health
and safety of all,
including that of teaching staff and support
teachers, students and
school
workers, including cleaners, cafeteria staff and
site officers, as well
as all other workers working within and for
schools, together with
parents, families and communities. This is
necessary for schools of all
kinds, from kindergartens, nurseries and
pre-schools, through to
primary and secondary schools, and indeed is
also required in the
universities
and colleges.
Second, there is no reason why the right to
education cannot be
enforced and provided for all under these
exceptional circumstances.
The experience of the peoples of the world over
the last 200 years or
so shows that even in conditions of war, where
bombs were dropping,
including during the Blitz in London and
elsewhere in Britain during
the Second World War, possibilities were created
for the children to
continue their education.
The stand being taken by the government is
extremely dangerous and
can only be described as callous and deeply
cynical. Their
decision-making is grounded in nothing but the
demands of the most
narrow private interests in order to benefit
from the economic and
financial crisis which the prior schemes to pay
the rich have created
for the
economies of England, Wales, Scotland and the
north of Ireland. The
government's thesis is that there is a "balance"
to be struck between
the health and safety of staff and students
alike and the demands of
the economy, and that a certain amount of
"collateral damage,"
including a certain amount of death and social
upheaval, simply must be
borne.
It is important to debunk this corrupt and
self-serving thesis and
to reject the measures being imposed, which take
no account of the
well-being of anybody. Indeed, the arbitrary
pronouncements and
decisions the government has made throughout
this whole Covid-19 crisis
have seemed calculated to stifle those very
voices fighting to
guarantee
the well-being and the right to education for
all, and who are playing
a role in providing the very solutions necessary
to solve the problems
as they emerge.
It could be said that what has been exposed is
a crisis of
authority. Throughout, the government acted in
an authoritarian way,
claiming the authority to make decisions on
behalf of the polity,
including announcing arbitrary dates for schools
to return, the
creation of class "bubbles" of up to 300
children in a year group, and
the constantly
changing rules of social distancing, whilst
refusing to consult with
teachers, parents, schools and the education
unions, and acting in a
callous and cynical way, frequently flying in
the face of their
oft-quoted "science," the most recent
announcement being that all
schools will open to all pupils from September
1. This is despite the
numbers of
Covid-19 related deaths still being alarmingly
high and real fears of
a second wave of the virus come the winter.
By contrast, the education unions, in
consultation with their
members, schools, parents and the wider
community, have acted
responsibly and with genuine authority. Their
interest is in
guaranteeing the well-being of everyone in
society. Their authority
lies in their determination to speak in their
own name as part of
fighting in defence of the
rights of all. They seek to guarantee an
education as a right for all,
which they are working to bring into being, no
matter what the
conditions, for the whole of society.
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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