Alberta teachers concerned about using draft junior high curriculum in fall as they haven’t yet seen it

A 14-day cooling off period before a potential teachers strike in the province ends this week. Nicole Lampa has the latest.

Teachers from across the province met in Edmonton over the Victoria Day long weekend for their annual Alberta Teachers’ Association representative assembly, in which they decided to move forward on two main issues: the government’s planned changes to curriculum and on opposing the use of literacy screeners for Kindergarten to Grade 3.

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Jason Schilling, the president of the teachers’ association, told CTV News Edmonton on Monday the junior high curriculum changes spurred a “big discussion” on the Alberta government’s plans to move ahead to have teachers pilot it in the fall. The problem for the teachers, Schilling said, is that they have yet to see what it looks like and don’t expect they will be ready to put it into action next school year.

“They want to pilot this curriculum in the fall, but we’ve yet to see a draft version of this curriculum, and we’re getting into the third week of May,” Schilling said. “There’s just no way that teachers will be ready to implement any kind of pilot in the fall when they’ve not seen the curriculum.”

On the provincial plan to use literacy scanners for Kindergarten to Grade 3, Schilling said teachers passed a resolution opposing the move.

“Why are we testing kids in kindergarten on concepts that are taught in Grade 2?” he said. “Teachers are really concerned about the harm that it’s doing to young students as they’re just starting their education careers.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Sean McClune