Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia
[permission to reproduce granted if authorship is acknowledged]
Adhering to the dictum “never let a good
crisis go to waste,” Irvin Studin has proposed in The Globe and Mail that Canada
needs a temporary Minister of Education to address what he calls
“Canada’s postquarantine education crisis.” I do not dispute that COVID-19 has
produced an unprecedented crisis in education. In fact, I recently published a
blog addressing the question: “Will
Public Schooling Withstand the Disruptive Impact of COVID-19?”
Studin’s opinion article begins by clarifying that lawmaking in education is the exclusive responsibility of the provinces and declaring that he is “not calling for any constitutional change whatsoever in this regard.” He makes clear that the establishment of a Federal Minister of Education would not require a constitutional change.
Although the provinces were granted the jurisdiction to make laws in relation to education, there is nothing in the Constitution Act that prevents the Canadian government from using its leadership role and spending powers to influence public schooling in Canada. Whenever the Government of Canada has wanted to influence public schooling, it has not been shy from doing so. In fact, the Government of Canada has supported or undertaken many initiatives in the realm of public schooling. For example, the Government of Canada provides funding for PISA and, based on agreements with the provinces and territories, it also provides financial support for minority language education and second-language instruction.
Like Studin, I have argued that Canada must use its leadership position and its spending power to ensure that Canadian public schools remain the strong institutions they are. A federal department of education could provide leadership and funding to public elementary and secondary schooling in areas central to the interest of all Canadians and coordinate the work of the various federal departments and agencies that engage with public schools.
Such a department could: sponsor research about the effectiveness of various approaches to education; develop policy papers to stimulate public debate about the directions that public schooling might take; coordinate the collection and interpretation of data pertinent to such issues and decisions; and report periodically to the Canadian people about public schools.
There are several specific areas that I think demand the attention of the government of Canada. First and most important is the education of Indigenous learners. Significant achievement gaps between identifiable groups detract from the promise of Canadian public schooling that the outcomes of schooling should not be determined by one’s background. The gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students is a national disgrace that requires immediate, coordinated attention which the federal government seems reluctant to provide.
Sympathetic as I am to a federal department of education and to using the post-quarantine crises in education instrumentally to achieve such a goal, the immediate appointment of a temporary minister of education is not prudent.
The introduction of a federal
department of education would be a delicate matter for any government at any
time. Ensuring the provinces – and especially Quebec – that the Government of
Canada would play an entirely facilitative role would be essential.
Education is, in part, about nation-building – a topic that is extremely sensitive for Quebec. Building the French Nation in Quebec is an enduring project in which Francization – the integration of immigrants to French language and culture - plays an important part.
A temporary minister of education would not be able to earn sufficient credibility and muster the resources necessary to produce a short-term impact. The uneven response among provinces and school boards thus far is in great measure attributable to the reluctance of provinces to do more than set guidelines. If the provinces were to take a more prescriptive approach, they would “own it” when things go awry – as they inevitably will.
Much groundwork would be required were any federal government prepared to attempt to formally establish a permanent Minister (and Ministry) of Education.