New Brunswick’s first education summit began in Fredericton on Wednesday, kicking off three days of discussions around the issues facing the province’s education system and how to solve them.
Experts attending the conference say they were excited by a green paper titled ‘Succeeding at Home’ that the province released at the beginning of the month.
The paper outlined multiple proposals that would reform the province’s education system, including the elimination of elementary grades and their replacement with what the province is calling “flexible learning environments.”
The department also wants to reintroduce skilled labour and trades programs to the high school curriculum, which the minister says will require a large increase in funding for new equipment.
“We are at a turning point in this province and we can no longer afford to lag behind or just keep pace with the rest of the world,” said education minister Dominic Cardy in a press release.
“We need an education system that supports learners who are ready for the future to ensure their success long after graduation.”
Guests from across North America are set to speak at the conference, which the province hopes will inspire and energize participants that include teachers, students, parents, educators and members of the business community.
The final day of the conference — Oct. 18 — will feature separate anglophone and francophone sessions that focus on discussions with stakeholders about how to move forward.
Tracey Burns, a senior analyst for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, says ensuring that young people know how to speak to one another is one of the most pressing challenges facing multi-lingual countries around the world.
“How do you really teach a language for a second-language learner to be at a level of fluency, I think, is one of the hardest questions we have,” Burns said.
Another goal of the summit is to build relationships between educators and the province’s business community.
New Brunswick’s green paper outlined how the government intends to work with industry and New Brunswick community colleges to develop “learning partnerships” and expand the “availability of physical and virtual learning environments” so students can learn job skills in practical settings.
Cardy said he’s looking forward to incorporating the feedback into the government’s future plans.
“Inside the department we’ll take the areas that we want to work on, developing the ideas in the green paper, and turn those into government policies, practices, regulations and laws,” he said.
“So the whole point of this is to have a deliberative, democratic process where as many people can have their voice heard as possible.”
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