For Immediate Release
2 February, 2024
NL NDP Leader Jim Dinn (St. John’s Centre) is calling the government’s announcement of Education Accord NL another tactic to avoid doing the hard work that has already been identified in previous reports. School communities have had enough of successive administrations paying lip service to the need to properly resource our education system.
Many committees and reports have been delivered over the last number of years. This includes The Premier’s Task Force on Improving Educational outcomes in 2016-2017, Better Together: A Summary Report of the Panel on the Status of Public Education in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Teacher Allocation Review Committee, and A Review of Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, to name a few. Dinn questions how many reports government needs to finally buckle down and do the work.
“Enough with the vacuous dreaming and reimagining language. Get on with it, already. The 2004 report, It’s About Time by Dr. Dave Dibbon identified the need to address class size and composition as a way to foster student success. Twenty years later and neither the PCs nor the Liberals have really addressed this long-standing issue. If Minister Howell wants to reimagine the education system, then start with smaller class sizes,” said Dinn.
“We hear first-hand from workers in the schools that have already identified the solutions. What is going to be different with the Education Accord? Is the government finally going to listen to workers in the schools?” questioned Dinn. “The Furey Liberal government is attempting to deflect the public’s attention from the fact that they have taken no meaningful action to help the students, teachers, and staff in our schools.”
“The NLTA says they had little notice of this latest announcement. What does that tell us? That this government has no plan and hastily announced this without consulting an important partner,” said Dinn. “Why didn’t government lay the proper groundwork before amalgamating the NLESD into the Department? The Minister says students and staff cannot wait any longer, yet her Department is refusing to take meaningful action to address any of the issues schools are facing in our province.
“The NLTA, workers, parents -- all have brought solutions on how to address the key issues -- this government knows the solutions, but they don’t want to do the hard work to implement them.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca