Ms Woo-Paw: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Statistics Canada is projecting rapid changes to our population over the next 20 years. Major growth areas would include the aboriginal population, and it's projected that about one-third of Canada's population would be a visible minority. Learning about effective integration and develop­ment of inclusive communities speaks to the need for two-way integration. My question is to the Minister of Education. You have initiated the Inspiring Education visioning process,...

Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last month the government announced a memorandum of understanding on aboriginal education with treaty chiefs and the federal government. Motion, however, should not be confused with progress. On aboriginal education this government is standing still and in some areas is actually going backwards. To the Minister of Education. The partnership memo­randum seems to be an agreement to come up with a strategy later, an IOU rather than an...

Mr. Fawcett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Approximately $572 million have been put into the Alberta Initiative for School Improve­ment since 2002. What I've heard from a lot of teachers and students and parents is that this money takes teachers out of the classroom and puts them into administrative or management-type roles. I'm curious as to what value taxpayers and students are receiving through this program. To the Minister of Education: are there any quantitative...

Ms Calahasen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. "Paternalistic," "heavyhanded" are words I have heard used to describe the Minister of Education's actions in firing the corporate board of the Northland school division. Many of my constituents have children who attend schools run by the Northland school board, and they're worried and hurt and concerned about the future of their children's education and their fundamental right to elect local school board trustees. My question is to the...

Alberta's First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) leaders and the Government of Alberta have established a First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Partnership Council to guide the future direction of FNMI education in Alberta. The Partnership Council's efforts will identify and complement the work already being done in FNMI education in our province and is Alberta's next step stemming from discussions at the Summit on Aboriginal Education hosted by the Council of Ministers of...

On January 21, Minister Hancock announced the appointment of an official trustee and an inquiry team in Northland School Division. The official trustee, Dr. Colin Kelly, replaced the 23 members of the Northland board, while the three-person inquiry team has been asked to examine how student outcomes and governance in the school district can be improved....

Today, Minister Hancock, along with his ministerial colleagues Doug Horner (Advanced Education and Technology) and Gene Zwozdesky (Aboriginal Relations) signed an agreement with five First Nations and Métis leaders to establish an Education Partnership Council to guide the future of Aboriginal education in Alberta. The Council will provide a forum to address shortcomings and roadblocks in the delivery of education to Alberta's Aboriginal peoples. Its membership includes the three ministers; the Grand Chiefs of Treaties...

Education watchers in Alberta will be interested in a story in today's Edmonton Journal headlined Minister seeks aboriginal education funding boost. The negotiations the article describes are part of Alberta Education's ongoing efforts to improve First Nations and Métis student achievement across the province....

Lots going on at Alberta Education with a strong focus on the future.  I will be writing about several projects like "Setting the Direction for Special Education" and "Inspiring Education: a Dialogue with Albertans" in later blogs.  I would encourage interested people, particularly students, to go to www.speakout.alberta.ca. and participate in discussions by students on what is important to them about education.  But today I want to focus on a topic that is probably one of...

Today the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) met in Saskatoon.  We typically meet twice per year to share views on a number of issues we have in common.  A focus of CMEC over the past few years, and continuing, is literacy.  This has been and continues to be a very important issue for me personally.  I have tried to be very supportive to community and provincial organizations who work in the field.  The...