Achi news desk-
Edmonton Catholic Schools has announced that they will be piloting a new Alberta K-6 social studies curriculum next fall.
“Edmonton Catholic Schools is committed to the pilot phase to ensure our teachers are able to provide valuable feedback,” said Sandra Palazzo of Edmonton Catholic Schools in a news release Friday. “Our approach is guided by collaboration with teachers, Alberta Education, and other jurisdictional partners to provide the best possible learning experience for all students.”
The province introduced a revamped version of the curriculum on March 14 after being forced to scrap an earlier version due to complaints that it was racist and not age-appropriate.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said that since March 14, the province has received feedback from an additional 2,900 people with positive and negative comments.
“We heard positive comments about the increased emphasis on indigenous peoples in history, the increased emphasis on history and teaching students about the importance of democracy,” he told reporters on Friday.
“Of course, we also heard that there are some areas for improvement. In particular, we heard that some grades may have too much content, and that some content may need to be moved to later grades.”
Nicolaides says that since March 14, the content of tax studies has been moved from Grade 2 to Grade 5.
Content load for Grade 4 students reduced.
Additional content on First Nations, Inuit and French history has been added.
Content about racism, anti-semitism, and Islamophobia has also been added.
The government has committed $34 million as part of the 2024 Budget to support the piloting and implementation of the curriculum in the 2024-25 school year.
“Throughout the pilot process, teachers will be provided with the information and tools
they need to work with the draft curriculum in their classrooms,” the province said in a news release.
School boards have until May 15 to let the province know if they plan to pilot the curriculum.
Feedback from those piloting the curriculum will be used to finalize the curriculum before it is implemented in September 2025.
But Nicolaides doesn’t expect to see many big changes.
“I think we’ve got the balance right there. So doors are still open to minor, minor modifications, additions, deletions. So we’d be happy to incorporate those.”
The Alberta Teachers’ Association is calling on the province to stop rolling out the curriculum in order to get better feedback from teachers.
“We welcomed the opportunity to provide feedback on the social studies curriculum,” ATA president Jason Schilling wrote in a news release Friday. “Unfortunately, teachers’ recommendations are not reflected in this latest draft. Rather than go ahead and pilot a curriculum that we know is flawed, let’s take the time needed to get it right and ready for the classroom.”
In addition, concerns were raised about launching a new curriculum again when four new subject curriculums have already been launched in recent years.
Schilling says launching the new curriculum when schools are already understaffed and overcrowded will only cause the system to be further overloaded.
With files from Steven Dyer of CTV News Edmonton
