Preparing for back to school

By Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA

Hello Chestermere-Strathmore: I would first like to take a moment to thank Chestermere council – and specifically Councillor Ritesh Narayan – for their love and compassion for the family of Shane Smith. This tragedy has shown us yet again how precious and precarious life is. Thank you for honouring this life that left us too soon.

I would like to chat about the school re-entry plan with respect to some of the updates. Safety has been, and will always be, paramount in these decisions. That is why we brought forward a robust school re-entry plan that will ensure the safety of our staff and students. Unfortunately, the fear mongering from the opposition would have you believe that they developed a re-entry plan that works, and that only their ideas can keep our kids safe. In reality, the opposition’s recommendations simply are not feasible. We have to help our kids understand and follow protocols to the best of our ability as parents, caregivers and teachers. We all share a responsibility in the health of our kids and in making school re-entry as successful as possible. We will not be free of this virus in our schools, but we can do a lot to help our kids to prepare. Additionally, the opposition’s proposed 15-person cap would require an additional 13,000 teachers to be hired by September. To put this into perspective, a 2017 court ruling forced British Columbia to hire 3,700 teachers. It took B.C. two years to comply with this ruling, and it resulted in a nation-wide teacher shortage. If it took B.C. two years to hire just 28 per cent of the teachers we would require, and it forced a nation-wide teacher shortage, where does the opposition expect Alberta to find 13,000 teachers by September?

Our Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange stated that the other major flaw with the opposition’s guesstimate-ridden proposal is the classroom space required. As with the teachers, we would require 13,000 new classrooms to be ready by September. This would be equivalent to 800 new schools. Since this has been pointed out, the NDP have made some pretty large assumptions, claiming that cities and private organizations would willingly open their doors free-of-charge, and that it would be easy to find this space. This claim does not take into account health and safety concerns, building standards, municipal zoning issues, and access to spaces in our rural and remote communities. Again, this may sound great on paper, but it is extremely clear that the NDP did not do their homework.

There is only one school re-entry plan in Alberta that has been developed in collaboration with and approved by our Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw, and that is the one developed by Alberta’s government. Unfortunately – in recent months – the NDP has continued to try and drag Dr. Hinshaw through the mud, consistently working to undermine her expert advice. This kind of behaviour in the middle of a pandemic is inexcusable for any elected official, let alone their entire caucus.

The safety and well-being of our students and educators should not be a partisan issue, but the NDP have decided to make it one. Our plan was built out of collaboration. School superintendents, school boards, parents and the teachers’ union all were involved in the conversations that created our three scenarios, and our plan for September has the confidence of those who are responsible for running our schools every day. I am always willing to listen to ideas about how we can keep our students safe, which is why we have committed to adjusting our guidelines as necessary as we approach September. What’s become clear to me is that the NDP’s number one priority is scoring cheap political points off the back of a pandemic and our children’s safety. As a mother, I find that behaviour reprehensible. That was the foundation for the government’s school re-entry plan, and that will continue to be the foundation as we enter the school year.

Finally, I would like to share with you some information about the new Ministerial Order on Student Learning. We were very honoured to work with the curriculum advisory panel and we received responses from more than 8,000 Albertans, and we worked with 300 education partners to carry out the intent of the panel’s work and to focus on essential and foundational competencies throughout the entire curriculum. The emphasis on numeracy and literacy is something we heard about throughout the entire campaign leading up to the last election. This vision for student learning had a tremendous amount of public engagement, and contrary to the opposition’s arguments, does not take away from creativity, or styles of teaching that are conducive to the complex and unique classrooms that teachers manage. This is about reforming, updating and strengthening the curriculum so that Alberta students have everything they need to succeed by the time they leave high school. The world is changing rapidly and Alberta students need to be ready for that challenge, and to be able to confidently face their future. If COVID has taught us anything, it is that we have to be able to face uncertainty with adaptability and a willingness to be flexible in a fast-paced world. As always, we love to hear from you.

(Leela Sharon Aheer is the MLA Elect for Chestermere-Strathmore, Minister of Status of Women and Minister of Culture and Multiculturalism)