Round table on restructuring education.

• Author: David Newman, and others

Educational reform was the subject of one session at the 1996 Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Winnipeg. The lead speaker was David Newman, MLA of Manitoba. Delegates from several other jurisdictions also participated in the discussion. The following extracts are based upon the proceedings prepared by Manitoba Hansard. The complete transcript is availabe from the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.

David Newman (Manitoba): Talk about restructuring education often places an undue emphasis on cost. I am going to focus on some other issues. There are no longer geographic, jurisdictional, or subject matter barriers which can justify thinking narrowly about educational matters. Co-operation, collaboration and technology are overcoming barriers and improving the quality of education for the benefit of students. For example organizational boundaries are being blurred. It is difficult now to isolate the Department of Education from departments like Family Services, Health, Culture, Heritage and Citizenship, even departments like Urban Affairs and Public Housing or Justice. This is being recognized by certain integrated organizational changes. In Manitoba we have the Child and Youth Secretariat, which incorporates five of those six ministries I referred to in a supportive way and seems to be a means of bridging these boundaries.

We know that the problems in the school system include social as well as learning and teaching problems. So the theme of overcoming boundaries is an important one in understanding the restructuring that is going on and the rationale behind it.

Another issue pertains to character and citizenship. Do we focus enough on developing good citizens in our schools? There was a textbook written by R.S. Jenkins called Canadian Civics. Written in Montreal in 1909 it states certain timeless principles of education.

"One of the most important duties of the state is to provide for the education of the children who will someday be its masters. Democracy, with all its good and evil, must be accepted as the basis of modern government, though here and there a philosopher may scoff at the suffrage of the plow, yet social order and stability must henceforth depend on either the tolerance or the good will of the masses of the people.

The time when a small, educated class could safeguard the glories of civilized life and the arts by the use of physical or moral force is rapidly disappearing. Therefore it is a self-evident fact that the state ought to teach its future citizens the worth of our civilization and the ways of preserving it from impairment and of assisting in its progress. We must no longer, as those of an earlier age, walk calmly over the surface, underneath which slumbers the volcano of popular passion. The fruits of centuries of toil are too precious to be exposed to any possibility of injury. There must be a means sought for training our people in social and civic responsibility. Government is the foundation of the splendid fabric of our civilization. Therefore it is a subject about which the pupils in the school should receive very definite instruction.

There is also a passage on the duties of the citizen. Four duties are stated. They are timeless. The first one is to try and understand as well as you can our system of government and to keep yourself informed as to all the important acts of those who are in authority. The second duty of the citizen is to put your knowledge of the nation and its government to practical use by taking an active part in politics. A third duty incumbent on a citizen is to be ready to assist so far as you are able all good causes. The fourth one is to endeavour to lessen the cruelty of our civilization. There is hardly any doubt that if these duties were followed we should soon have a bright and happy world.

Education Today

Commenting on our education system, William Thorsell, the editor in chief of the Globe and Mail, speaking to the annual meeting of the Councils of Ministers of Education in Edmonton, Alberta, May 9, 1996, challenged us all when he said:

"I have long arrogantly assumed that standards of literacy, numeracy and knowledge of such things as history, geography and literature have declined since I graduated from high school in 1963. On reviewing some of the recent literature, I am surprised to find that my assumptions about this are pretty accurate. I find that after 10 years in school, 44 percent of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are functionally innumerate and almost 30 percent are functionally illiterate. That is defined by their ability to understand a comparatively simple newspaper article."

According to the Economic Council of Canada's 1992 study, A Lot to Learn, 30 percent of our young people do not complete high school. By the end of secondary school, Canadian students perform poorly in mathematics and science in comparison with most developed countries. On specific tests of basic skills, there is evidence of a deterioration in achievement compared with the situation 25 years ago, particularly in reading comprehension and language skills.

The decline or stagnation of standards in education...