Tory education critics give NDP failing grade

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This article was published 06/01/2012 (5263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — They’ve been inside the public school system — now the Tories’ new education critics are on the outside and not seeing what they like.

They’re unhappy with Manitoba’s abysmal scores in national math tests.

And they’re skeptical at best that Education Minister Nancy Allan can successfully cap class sizes in younger grades.

MLA Cameron Friesen is the new education critic and MLA Wayne Ewasko the critic for advanced education — both with careers as high school teachers — Friesen in Morden, Ewasko in Lac du Bonnet.

“You have to ask hard questions about achievement. We have to ask some fundamental questions about what we’re doing in school,” Friesen said in an interview Thursday.

The Tories aren’t advocating a return to the 1990s, when the party introduced provincewide testing and published school-by-school results.

But finishing second last in Canada, as Manitoba kids did in tests conducted by the country’s ministers of education, doesn’t cut it, he said.

“It tells a story,” Friesen said. “We’re spending an extraordinary amount on education — no one wants to be at the bottom.”

Manitoba needs to find better ways of assessing students, Friesen said.

“Assessment has to be meaningful, it has to be thorough,” he said.

“Have a good foundation in English, math,” said Ewasko, most recently a guidance counsellor.

Ewasko doubted Allan can make good on capping class sizes at 20 kids in kindergarten to Grade 3, especially at the announced budget of $105 million for additional teachers and capital expansion.

“It’s going to be dumped back on the school divisions” to figure out how to implement and finance, Ewasko said.

“Everyone’s wondering, will that number do it?” asked Friesen. “We’re really interested to see how the NDP commitment to cap class size is going to work out.”

Friesen taught for 12 years before returning to university and then worked as an assistant to a member of parliament. He and Ewasko, a 15-year teaching veteran, were elected for the first time Oct. 4.

Ewasko said he’ll be looking for answers from Advanced Education Minister Erin Selby about the 147 students that have left Brandon University after the recent faculty strike, the longest one in Manitoba history.

The Tories had demanded that the government call MLAs back to the house to legislate an end to the strike.

“Those are kids that might never go back,” Ewasko said. “Good news travels fast, bad news travels faster.”

As a high school guidance counsellor, he knows students must keep up their marks in all courses to maintain their university scholarships.

“I’m going to see how many students had to forego their scholarships” because of the strike, Ewasko said.

» Winnipeg Free Press