The Nova Scotia Teachers Union will no longer have a seat on the Council to Improve Classroom Conditions.
The union announced yesterday they were pulling their co-chair out of the council in response to the province adopting recommendations from the Glaze Report.
NSTU president Liette Doucet, says the province did not consult with the union before that decision.
In a statement, NSTU said the recommendations in the Glaze report are not in the best interests of students.
“By implementing the Glaze report, the current government has decided to bring division and distraction to an education system already battered by Bill 75,” says Doucet. “Had government lived up to its obligations to the Council, it would have learned that pushing forward with these changes is not in the best interests of students.”
Dr. Avis Glaze, an education expert, filed a report on the province’s education system last month.
The province announced shortly afterward they would be following 11 of the 22 recommendations from the report.
In a press release, Zach Churchill, minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, called the move ‘disappointing.’
He says the council helped create classroom caps and hire more teachers.
“We have for the first time ever, a provincewide attendance policy that principals tell us is already working to help improve student attendance and we’re finding ways for teachers to spend more time teaching our kids, and less time on paperwork,” says Churchill.
The council was created last March and each school board nominated a teacher to serve on it.
“The members of the Council deserve a great deal of gratitude and respect for their commitment to our public education system,” said Doucet in the statement.
The teachers serving on the council, who are also NSTU members, are free to stay on the council if they choose.
CKBW has reached out to Doucet for comment.
