'Massive' amount of feedback behind decision to pause N.L. curriculum change, minister says
Province still needs to move with sense of urgency, Krista Lynn Howell said
Newfoundland and Labrador's education minister is defending her decision to pause curriculum changes for junior high school students.
"This wasn't just an arbitrary plan that was developed on some random afternoon by me and a wingnut in the department somewhere. You know, this was a plan that was worked on for over two years by our subject specialists," Krista Lynn Howell told reporters Thursday.
"That's not to say that we had it a hundred per cent right. So that's why we went out with our engagement and receiving feedback."
The department's proposal would have made changes to have courses like social studies, art and core French optional or partially optional to students at 14 schools across the province. On Monday, the government hit pause.
Howell said the department received a "massive" output of feedback from a good cross-section of different school environments across Newfoundland and Labrador.
Critics, including students in the school system, voiced concern that changes could keep students from having a complete learning experience.
There was so much feedback, Howell said, that the province decided it needs to keep the consultation process going until March 21.
"We're going to have to pause the implementation of our Phase One, because it won't give our schools enough time to build what they need to move forward in September," she said.
Howell said she and the department is being mindful, but changes still need to be made to improve student engagement and testing scores.
"We look at our outcomes and recognize that they're not where we want them to be. So we don't want to take too long.… I do believe that we have to move with a sense of urgency," she said.
"There's still mandatory social studies courses in the proposal that we're building, but what we've looked was how we can expand that. How we can introduce more courses in a modular-based approach, so that students who have a particular or keen interest in a particular focus area will have the opportunity than to enrol in more courses along those lines."
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With files from Jenna Head