For Immediate Release
13 February, 2024
Jordan Brown (Labrador West) is calling on government to be more transparent about the state of education in our province. Brown’s call comes after an ATIPP showed what he and others suspected – the government wasn’t doing the work to fill vacancies at schools in Labrador West and there weren’t as many course slots being offered for certain courses. Brown says the action that finally came was a result of joint pressure being put on the government by the NDP, the NLTA, and the Town Councils.
“Our ATIPP shows two things, one that the government wasn’t being transparent in their initial response that said course offerings weren’t impacted, and secondly that the work put in by the NLTA, the Town Councils, and the NDP to have staffing issues addressed had an impact,” said Brown. “Where two years ago we had a government claiming there were no reduction in course offerings for students, most recently they had to walk that back and are now working with educators in the region to find solutions, like more affordable housing for teachers, and the school district is expanding housing options.
“A year after we all put pressure on the government to roll up their sleeves and get to work, the government had no choice but to send officials up to the region and start working on solutions,” said Brown. “It shouldn’t take all of this effort to make sure that youth in this province get the education that’s owed to them and that they deserve. I want to thank the Towns and the NLTA for holding the government to account.”
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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