Survey shows most Albertans don’t want province setting standards for school library books, province going ahead

The UCP is working to set up a provincial standard for books in school libraries, despite survey results showing the majority of respondents are opposed to that

Survey results from the Alberta government show the majority of respondents don’t support the province setting standards for school library books.

The survey ran between May 26 and June 6 and asked respondents multiple questions on “sexually explicit content” in school libraries, though no definition was given as to what that included.

It was opened by the United Conservative Party in May after the education minister announced plans for new rules around school books.

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The survey gathered 77,395 unique responses, with an additional 515 responses received on the French Language survey.

Nearly half of respondents were guardians of school-aged children. The results show support for provincial standards for school library materials was highest among this group.

However, while 44 per cent of that category was very or somewhat supportive, 49 per cent were not at all or not very supportive.

Sixty-one per cent of all respondents said they have never been concerned about a school library book being inappropriate due to sexually explicit content, while 62 per cent agreed that parents and guardians should play a role in reporting or challenging sexually explicit content.

Opinions on who should decide what materials are age-appropriate were more evenly divided: 23 per cent said school librarians, 20 per cent said teachers and 19 per cent said parents.

When asked at what age children should be able to access sexually explicit content, half of respondents said either middle school (22 per cent) or high school (23 per cent).

Thirty-four per cent said never, including 42 per cent of parents, and 17 per cent said all ages.

Most respondents were also supportive of school libraries handling explicit materials by restricting by grade (41 per cent), requiring parental permission (12 per cent) or keeping it available to all students (17 per cent). The other 30 per cent said it should be removed entirely.

On Friday, the province said the survey results showed “strong support” for a school library policy and it would be using them, and feedback from education partners, to develop province-wide standards.

“Parents, educators and Albertans in general want action to ensure children don’t have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries,” said Demetrios Nicolaides, minister of education and childcare.

“We will use this valuable input to guide the creation of a provincewide standard to ensure the policy reflects the priorities and values of Albertans.”

CTV News Edmonton reached out to the education minister for more information on the survey but did not receive a response.

The full survey results can be found here.