The Provincial Advisory Council on Education (PACE) met for the first time this week.
The provincially appointed council is closed to the public, which has drawn criticism from groups including the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU).
Gin Yee, chair of PACE, and former Halifax school board member, says the council doesn’t have governing power which makes it different from elected school boards.
“We’re just providing advice to the minister and how I was appointed to this group as chair and member, I was actually appointed directly via the minister and I am accountable to that person.”
The council can only make recommendations to the minister
In an interview with our newsroom last week, NSTU president Paul Wozney called PACE an ‘exercise in optics’ as they don’t have governing power.
He’s also unimpressed with the closed door meetings.
“This is all kinds of icky and the fact that their meetings are not going to be public, we’re going to have no way of knowing if their meetings were edited or redacted before being made public,” says Wozney.
Overall, Yee says the meetings Sunday and Monday were productive.
“We had a wholesome discussion about next steps, basically agenda items,” says Yee. “There was commonality among councillors, we certainly support future agenda items like attacking student agenda, equity, well-being.”
PACE drafted their terms of reference and met with the minister and deputy minister of education.
They’ll meet again in December and every month throughout the school year except for March.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education says minutes will be posted on their website.
As of November 7, they have not been posted.
Story by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca
