Manitoba officials have revealed a reduced vision for education reform that promises changes to standardized tests and a permanent online school, but does not come up with such controversial legislation as the provincial government proposed last year.
The action plan, announced at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, in response to the provincial kindergarten’s recommendations to the 12th grade education commission, does not include the abolition or consolidation of school boards.
This proposal was at the heart of Bill 64 on education reform last year, leading to a significant public response. The Progressive Conservative government eventually withdrew the legislation.
The province says it has heard during consultations that the plan to abolish school boards has gone too far and that the changes included in the new plan are aimed at improving student performance and ensuring an inclusive and equitable education system.
The new plan was unveiled by Secretary of Education Wayne Evasco, who was joined at a press conference at Templeton School in Winnipeg on Wednesday by Seven Oaks Head of School Brian O’Leary and Community School Principal Arthur E. Wright Harpriet Panag.
Some of the changes have already been implemented, while others will begin in the next 12 to 24 months.
This includes a plan to establish and operate a permanent online high school by this time next year.
This would be part of a comprehensive distance learning strategy that draws on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, while allowing students to access programs that are not available in their community.
Manitoba will evaluate students across the province in 10th grade, not 12th grade, and seeks to publish data on student performance at the school level, in addition to data on school divisions and the province as a whole.
This latest change, which was part of the K-12’s recommendations, will take longer to implement, because the province must first determine what the data is and how it will be used.
During a technical briefing on Wednesday morning with reporters before Ewasko’s announcement, an education official said the data was not intended to be used to assess the performance of individual schools or to compare with others.
The province says it will also develop a plan to evaluate the “effectiveness” of the school system.
This includes plans to introduce new report cards within two years, which reflect the needs of students who need extra support in the classroom.
There will also be more early interventions for students in need, and each principal will take steps to improve the performance of indigenous students, the province said.
There is more
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Manitoba residents will soon learn how the provincial government intends to change the education system after abandoning its unpopular bill.
Secretary of Education Wayne Evasco will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. CT, along with Seven Oaks school principal Brian O’Leary and community school principal Arthur E. Wright Harpreyt Panag at Templeton School in Winnipeg.
CBC News will broadcast the press conference live here.
On Tuesday, Ewasko promised “good news” in a statement that would set out the provincial government’s response to the Commission’s 75 recommendations for education K-12, launched in 2019.
The province delayed the publication of the committee’s report due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but eventually published it in 2021, along with its reform legislation, Bill 64.
This bill would make radical changes to the province’s education system, many of which went beyond what the committee recommended. This includes removing all elected school boards in English and replacing them with a central education authority.
The reforms sparked a public outcry, and the Progressive Conservative government withdrew the law a few months later, following the resignation of former Prime Minister Brian Palister.
No details have been released on what this latest reform package includes, but Prime Minister Heather Stephenson, who succeeded Palister, said it would not be a return to the bill.
Other recommendations of the K-12 commission include new provincial tests in mathematics and literacy, tackling educational disparities for rural and northern students, and taking action to improve outcomes for local and new students.
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