Skip to main content

The Pallister government's closing of the Curriculum Resource Centre

Sadly the Manitoba Curriculum Resource Centre closed yesterday on April 1.  No it was not an April Fool's joke.  It is now closed permanently.   I have had may teachers speak or write to me about this closure which they feel will negatively impact access to materials which they can use in their classrooms. I raised these concerns in Question Period earlier today.  The following is from Hansard. 

Curriculum Support Centre - Elimination of Library Services

Hon. Jon Gerrard  (River Heights): Madam Speaker, the Manitoba curriculum support centre has been an incredible resource. For example, one teacher librarian who serves three small schools accessed its resources several times a month every month all school year for more than 35 years.
      The curriculum support centre is absolutely essential for teachers and students, particularly for smaller schools who have limited budgets and limited alternative resources. The Internet can complement but not replace it.
      Why has the Pallister government gone chop, chop, chop and eliminated the curriculum resource centre?

Hon. Kelvin Goertzen (Minister of Education and Training): Madam Speaker, the member opposite is wrong, wrong, wrong when it comes to the resources; those resources continue to be available online. There are more than 2,000 audiobooks and books that are available online. There's many other resources. Not another province in Canada, Madam Speaker, that had this particular kind of facility, yet those provinces got better results on literacy and other parts of the curriculum, Madam Speaker. Other provinces have modernized this. I'm sure that teachers across their provinces were about to get resources. Every other province has been able to do it and get better results. This member is advocating for something no other province does and wants us to continue to get poor results.
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Sadly, the CRC had so many resources which can never be accessed online. The minister is misguided.

Mr Goertzen is not correct that access to the internet can easily replace the Curriculum Support Centre. As one teacher-librarian wrote - "the CSC [Curriculum Support Centre] provided many other types of resources that cannot be accessed online.  Many of the DVD resources are copyrighted and are not streamed.   There are many hands-on kits including magnet kits, sound kits, hand-on kits for light, and many other science topics."  And the passion with which teachers I have spoken to support the Curriculum Support Centre suggest to me that it was a uniquely important centre and resource for Manitoba students and that it should not have been closed.   As one person put it "The closure of the CRC is a devastating loss for the students and the educators of Manitoba." 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comparison between Manitoba and South Dakota shows dramatic impact of Physical Distancing

Manitoba implemented physical distancing measures in mid-March.  South Dakota has still not made physical distancing mandatory.   The result is a dramatic difference in the incidence of covid-19 viral infections between the two jurisdictions.   This graph shows the number of people with Covid-19 infections from March 27 to April 14.  Manitoba ( red line )  started leveling off about April 4 and has seen only a small increase in Covid-19 infections since then.   South Dakota ( blue line )   has seen a dramatic increase in Covid-19 infections since April 4.  Those who are skeptical of the impact of physical distancing in Manitoba should look at this graph! Data are from the Johns Hopkins daily tabulations
18 comments
Read more

Pushing for safe consumption sites and safe supply to reduce overdose deaths

  On Monday June 20th, Thomas Linner of the Manitoba Health Coalition, Arlene Last-Kolb Regional Director of Moms Stop the Harm and Winnipeg City Councillor Sherri Rollins were at the Manitoba Legislature to advocate for better measures to reduce deaths from drug overdoses, most particularly for safe consumption sites and for a safe supply, measures which can reduce overdose deaths.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilati...
Post a Comment
Read more