Minister says eliminating early immersion only part of the equation

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There is no question the elimination of early immersion is not only the biggest change in the province's education system since Education Minister Kelly Lamrock took over the reins, but likely since immersion was introduced back in the 1970s.

But Lamrock says there is more change to come if the Liberal government is going to live up to its promise of creating the best education system in the country.

Lamrock says the system is so broken it needs major remodeling, not more dancing around the edges making minor repairs.

That's an approach that has drawn applause from some.

"Right or wrong this government is tackling the problem and are putting in mechanisms to see where we're going and from what I've seen, they are good plans," says Doug Willms, director of the Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy at University of New Brunswick and an education professor.

"There was a former minister of education who said to me, 'Doug, I know you are right on the segregation thing, I just don't know how to get there politically from here,' so I've got to hand it to Lamrock. It is a pretty bold move."

Lamrock says the next major changes, which he plans to announce within a few weeks, will have to do with improving the province's literacy rates.

"I think you can expect us to look at a number of issues," he says. "How do we deal with the fact that a lot of kids coming out of Grade 5 are in a position where they have not learned to read and write? How can we intervene in more creative ways? How can we make sure that somebody is accountable when kids don't learn to read and write by the end of Grade 5?"

Lamrock did not go into specifics, but said the province would be expanding its use of the Innovative Learning Fund, set up last September to reward the province's best teachers.

Teachers apply for funding for original projects, with the caveat that the results be shared with other schools if the project works.

"What we've done in the past is when it was politically hard, we left things in the way of teachers and we didn't ask them who was succeeding," Lamrock says. "Now we are getting barriers out of the way of innovation, funding innovation and learning from success."

Lamrock also plans to focus on what he calls diversity in education.

"Now that we've created a level playing field by eliminating streaming," he says, the province needs to get better at appealing to and developing the talents of each child through better use of fine arts, music, and physical education programs. He says enrichment and classroom discipline are two other areas he plans to tackle.

Parents can also expect to see changes to the curriculum.

Instead of having huge curriculum documents that outline every single fact a child is expected to know, Lamrock says the plan is to have a few clear outcomes and make sure there is a way to measure how well teachers are doing at getting them across.

"We have to get better at having more student-driven learning," he says. "We have to really move the system toward letting kids learn by doing."

Lamrock also hinted his upcoming announcement may change the current system where children rarely, if ever, are kept back a grade.

"It does come down to parents and students shouldn't just assume they will move on to the next level," he says. "We will know more with some of the literacy changes, but everything is on the table there."

Everything being on the table was the same catch phrase Lamrock used when the French Second Language Commission was appointed and seems to be his way of saying he will make whatever decision deemed necessary, popular or not, to create a better education system.

"I think almost all the decisions that will make a big difference will have some strong supporters and some vehement opponents," he says. "I believe the majority of people have realized that when you have a problem that has been around this long that everyone has wanted sincerely to fix, it isn't probably a case of doing the things that everybody can agree on."

Lamrock's education plan, When Kids Come First, has a five-year timeline and he says it will likely take the duration of it to put in place all the changes that need to be made. "By the end of five years we will have the pillars in place of the system we need to have, but that is not so much a year of decisions as five years of making decisions promptly and quickly," he says.