Alberta Teachers’ Association has concerns over curriculum review

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — As the Government of Alberta looks to continue a review of the curriculum in the province’s schools, the organization representing teachers has some concerns.

“As President of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, I was surprised and dismayed to hear such a prominent announcement was made through social media,” said Jason Schilling. “We had concerns about the curriculum’s implementation, but we don’t have any concerns about the content.”

Schilling said teachers spent many hours working on the new curriculum established by the past NDP government, and while they were worried it would be put in place too fast, he doesn’t understand what exactly the UCP has a problem with.

“So we’re curious to know who is going to make up this advisory panel, because we have not been contacted about it yet,” he added.

Schilling said the ATA should have a place at the table helping resolve the issue, as that is how it is normally done.

“We expect that to stay the same. Especially moving forward, because teachers should be involved in the process of curriculum redesign because they are the ones who will be delivering the curriculum.”

Also, as Premier Jason Kenney suggests the social sciences program will be too political, while students are failing in math, reading, and numeracy, Schilling is not too sure where that comes from.

“Hard to speculate what Mr. Kenney is looking at when he talks about literacy and numeracy rates being down, and what he is suggesting might be within the social studies curriculum that he doesn’t like. I want to be able to see what he’s looking at first before making a really clear opinion about it,” Schilling said.

But with the ATA yet to receive any sort of invitation to this panel, Schilling doesn’t know if he will ever find out until the changes are made.

“That would be a challenge if we’re not on the panel to have a look at that.”