At a meeting of the Council of Ministers of Education held recently in Quebec, provincial and territorial ministers of education agreed to work together toward three major priorities: literacy, Aboriginal education and post-secondary capacity.
Education Minister Mildred Dover advised that the ministers will engage the federal government in all three areas.
Provinces and territories will work together on initiatives to increase the literacy levels of all students, beginning with a national forum on literacy. They will develop a shared approach to improve educational success for aboriginal students, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples and the federal government. To increase post-secondary capacity, ministers will identify key issues affecting the post-secondary sector, including funding for infrastructure, research and increased access.
“I feel that these priorities respond to Islanders' expectations for leadership in education and we will continue to work with all our partners to address them. Learners are the big winners when we work together,” said Minister Dover.
Provinces and territories will also continue to work together to address other priorities such as special educational needs, online learning and connectivity, student financial assistance reform, copyright, and healthy schools.
Prince Edward Island and British Columbia are the lead provinces in a major new pan-Canadian partnership of health and education ministries to promote healthy schools. Following a presentation by Minister Dover and Minister Christensen of B.C, the organization of the new Health Promoting Schools initiative was approved. School health coordinators will now be named in twelve provinces and territories. The program will be officially launched next month. “We are extremely pleased to provide leadership in the area of school health,” said Minister Dover. “Working together, Islanders have had some tremendous accomplishments in health promotion, many of them in the school setting. We have a lot to offer in this area and we look forward to learning from new opportunities to work with others.”
The ministers, most of whom represent Canada’s Copyright Consortium, agreed to seek an urgent meeting with federal ministers to object to proposed changes to the Copyright law. The changes would require payment for educational use of Internet materials. Under the new law, students and teachers could have to pay a fee for the educational use of Internet materials that are free to the public.
Ministers agreed to report to Canadians each year on their progress through the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC).