Stephen McNeil’s government is looking to railroad Nova Scotians into an overhaul of school administration based only on some thinly supported recommendations from a partisan education consultant. We should all be worried. A report from the Commission on Inclusive Education is due back in March. So why are changes being rushed based only on the […]
Education
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Building a case for an Africentric school
The community my father grew up in went without a school for 40 years. My father, Charlie Wilson, was born into segregation in 1927. He grew up during a time when schools were funded by the communities in which they were located. If your community could not afford to build a facility and pay a […]
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Dalhousie looks at fossil fuel divestment
The province’s biggest university will look at divesting its financial portfolio from fossil fuel companies. The Halifax school’s board of governors approved the motion Tuesday to investigate a new ecological option for its investment portfolio. A third-party financial consultant will be hired to figure out a financial strategy free from climate-changing fossil fuels is viable. […]
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Nova Scotia teachers set strike vote
A year after the first teachers strike in Nova Scotian history, unionized educators are once again at war with the province. On Tuesday the Nova Scotia Teachers Union announced it would hold a strike vote on February 20 for its 9,3000 members. The action is a direct response to the recently released Glaze report and its […]
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King’s College to examine school’s connection to slavery
The University of King’s College is taking a serious look at its own historical connections to the slave trade. The school announced on Monday it’s creating a scholarly inquiry to examine the direct and indirect benefit King’s has received from slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to an accompanying press release, the inquiry […]
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A lack of imagination on Bloomfield
Whatever is going to happen to the old Bloomfield Centre, thanks to the province it won’t be a new school. Caroline Arsenault, a parent who lives near the abandoned north end property, isn’t impressed with that decision. “It’s just so disappointing that this government just doesn’t seem to be willing to think differently and think […]
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Nova Scotia government closing the book on school boards
Nova Scotia will begin acting on recommendations made in yesterday’s “Raise the Bar” report, starting with shuttering the province’s elected school boards. The news was announced Wednesday afternoon by Zach Churchill, minister of education and early childhood development. “I thank Dr. [Avis] Glaze for her incredibly thoughtful report,” writes Churchill in a release. “She has […]
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Dire education report calls for an end to province’s school boards
A new government report is calling for sweeping changes to the province’s education system. Entitled Raise the Bar: A Coherent and Responsible Education Administration System for Nova Scotia, the document was assembled over the last year by international education advisor Avis Glaze. Among its 22 recommendations is a proposal to eliminate all the province’s elected […]
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Who checks the street checkers?
It was just about this time last year that Halifax Regional Police released a decade’s worth of statistical data on the use of street checks. In the 12 months since the department has repeatedly shown it has a long way to go to combat racial bias both real and perceived in its policing. But while […]
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Dalhousie’s Accent Clinic sending mixed messages
International students and anthropology professors are having a lot of trouble understanding Dalhousie University’s Accent Clinic. Formerly called the Accent Modification Clinic, the university service was founded four years ago to help students improve their English. But its controversial purpose raises several questions about race, class and the stigmatization of people from other places. Martha […]
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Treaty education an ongoing project in Nova Scotia
At a Halifax Regional School board meeting last June, a motion was approved to acknowledge that HRSB schools occupy unceded Mi’kmaw territory. South Shore-Bedford board representative Jennifer Raven, who put forward the motion, also announced that the department of Education and Early Childhood Development would be introducing treaty education into the province’s education curriculum come October, […]
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African Nova Scotian communities form an integral part of our past, present and future
The African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition welcomes the recent report from the United Nations Group of Working Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Canada. More than 25 African Nova Scotian organizations presented to the Working Group in October 2016 and are pleased to see many of […]