A scandal over teacher training in Nova Scotia resurfaced Wednesday with the release of an arbitrator's decision.
Nova Scotia teachers had been taking distance courses at Iowa based Drake University to upgrade their certification and their pay when questions were raised about how rigorous the Drake classes are, the Department of Education unilaterally ended the courses.
The Nova Scotia Teachers Union grieved the decision and an arbitrator has now ruled in their favour.
There will be individual remedies for nearly 500 teachers who were part way through the courses.
The union and the province still disagree over the issue.
“I don't believe that the government, when they made this decision, had really looked into the courses at all,” says Nova Scotia Teachers Union president Liette Doucet.
“There's a broad based consensus that the courses that were being provided through Drake weren't of the highest quality, and that we weren't perhaps getting the best benefit,” says Education Minister Zach Churchill.
Despite the ruling, Nova Scotia teachers will not be taking courses at Drake University going forward. The university no longer accepts Canadian distance students.
