News Release

FREDERICTON (GNB) –Stakeholders across the education system will work together over the coming months to change decision-making processes, including how district education councils are composed and organized, and to improve community engagement.

“Open discussion is the best way to identify and resolve challenges,” said Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Dominic Cardy. “When we launched Succeeding at Home: A green paper on education in New Brunswick, we committed to reviewing structures to better support principals, teachers, students and parents. By engaging partners across the system, we will deepen our understanding of how we can build a progressive educational culture that empowers educators.”

Discussions will take place through early winter with the intent of having recommendations by late spring on:

·         how to enable alignment and stability throughout the entire system;

·         how to support consistent student-centred decisions;

·         where relationships within the education system can be strengthened; and

·         how to increase democratic participation.

Cardy said the goal is to develop mechanisms to ensure local leadership is empowered to improve the learning environment and to be actively involved in their communities.

The new governance model is expected to begin implementation by the end of 2022.

“We want to ensure stability within the education system, but there are opportunities to develop mechanisms that foster innovation and make sure our educators have the tools and freedom to share their experiences and knowledge to engage students and support learning,” said Cardy. “We have a dual education system and we are committed to ensuring it remains protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms with a new structure based on democratic principles.”

The anglophone and francophone sectors will focus on the ways their individual structures can better reflect their own identities to better serve students and communities, said Cardy. The intent is to look at structures, processes and connections to improve services, rather than looking at how learning is delivered within the classroom, curricula or other educational approaches.

This past spring, the department re-started discussions with district education councils, district staff, teachers and families that began through the Politique d'aménagement linguistique et culturel en éducation, the 10-year education plans and Succeeding at Home: A green paper on education in New Brunswick. These initial discussions helped in the development of a stakeholder consultation plan which will help the department gain feedback and insights to inform future decision-making.