Nova Scotia Education Minister Karen Casey introduced changes to the curriculum on Wednesday for the province’s youngest students, touting a greater focus on the essentials: reading, writing and arithmetic.
The changes will come into effect in September and are meant to provide a better foundation for students in grades primary to three.
They come in response to last fall’s review of the public education system, which saw input from nearly 19,000 Nova Scotians, including more than 3,000 teachers.
“A major area of concern was that our students were falling behind in math and literacy,” Casey said on Wednesday.
Government staff and a team of teachers have been working together since February to develop the changes.
Casey said the changes reflect what teachers identified as challenges. They include allowing more time for math and language arts, and focusing on essential learning outcomes so the expectations are clearer for students.
“What we heard very clearly from our teachers and from parents and from other partners in education was that, as it stands with the current curriculum, there was too much material to cover in too little time,” said Monica Williams of the Centre for Learning Excellence.
Michael MacDonald, a teacher who helped design the curriculum changes, said that by reducing the number of outcomes teachers have to achieve, they’ll have more time to spend with students.
“Through the Education Act those outcomes, we had to teach them, so teachers really felt that they weren't doing their job if they didn't get to every outcome regardless of how the student was moving forward,” he said.
About 200 teachers from across the province began reviewing the curriculum changes on Wednesday, and on Thursday a second group will gather to do the same.
In total, there are about 1,800 primary to grade three teachers who will need to learn about the changes.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jacqueline Foster
