By Peter Fassbender
Last week, more than half a million British Columbia children went back to school.
The first week back is a special time when everyone – from kindergarten to Grade 12 – shares in the excitement of the year ahead.
This is when students, parents and teachers set objectives and settle in to work together. For our government’s part, Premier Christy Clark has set clear goals: pursuing long-term labour peace, moving B.C.’s Education Plan forward, and building on our commitment to skills and technical training.
I know we all want to find lasting labour peace that will allow everyone to focus on what matters most: helping every student learn and succeed.
We will continue to pursue our framework for a 10-year agreement with teachers. The British Columbia Teachers Federation has asked to bargain directly with government on provincial matters and that’s being done.
Stability is equally important for school support staff, represented by CUPE and other unions. As part of the current negotiations, we also want to explore how to achieve lasting stability for support staff.
Long-term labour peace is a means to a far more important end: the ongoing transformation of our system to better support learning. While B.C. has one of the best systems in the world, new research on brain development and learning suggests we need to shift many of our traditional approaches.
The B.C. Education Plan was launched two years ago to engage more students in their own learning and provide them with skills for a rapidly changing world. We recognize that no two students learn the same way or at the same pace and that learning is more than just memorizing facts.
As a result, the B.C. Education Plan puts a strong focus on personalized learning, aiming to provide students more opportunity to pursue individual talents, interests and preferences while maintaining focus on foundational skills – reading, writing and numeracy.
It also seeks to better prepare students for 21st century careers and workplaces.
Our cross-government Skills and Training Jobs Plan is another important change.
This year, about 134,000 students will take at least one applied skills course. A further 4,000 will participate in programs where they earn grad credits and credits toward post-secondary programs and apprenticeships.
Furthermore, we recently appointed a new Superintendent for Trades and Student Transitions to assist districts in expanding partnerships with industry and post-secondary institutions.
As students demonstrate everyday at school, dedication is the path to achievement. As another school year gets underway, our government is dedicated to pursuing lasting labour peace, transforming an already great education system, and growing skills and technical training in every district.
These efforts will keep more students on track to graduate and better prepared for the opportunities ahead – whether they have set their sights on technical training, university, or jumping straight into the workforce.
Peter Fassbender is the B.C. education minister.