The Issue

For most of the last decade, students and teachers have been trying to cope with increased demands and inadequate and declining resources.  While some of the erosion has been halted, much remains to be done. Albertans consistently rank education as one of their top priorities and areas of concern.  Polls have indicated that Albertans want to see improvements in teaching and learning conditions.

The Reality

Too many Alberta students are still trying to learn in over-crowded classrooms where opportunities for individual assistance and support are limited.

Funding for Alberta’s schools is only now approaching pre-cutback levels. Schools still do not have the resources to meet the dramatically increased demands being made on them. Statistics Canada reports that:

• Alberta spends less on public education as a percentage of its total wealth (provincial GDP) than any other province.
• Alberta, the richest province in the country, does spend more to operate schools than the Canadian average, but less than Manitoba and just slightly more than Saskatchewan.  
• the government is not spending enough on public education. Fewer than 5 percent of Albertans believe that government is spending too much on public education.

The provincial government must ensure that students have access to clean, well maintained facilities in their communities:

• Albertans support additional investment in public education. Polls conducted by Ispos-Reid have consistently indicated that between 70 and 75 percent of Albertans believe n Learning estimated that there is a backlog in school maintenance estimated at 1.2 billion dollars.
• In its Annual Report for 2003 -2004, Alberta Infrastructure reported that 48 percent of the province’s schools are rated in poor (6 percent) or fair (42 percent) condition.  This is unchanged since 2002-03.  Alberta Infrastructure admits that this estimate may be optimistic, saying “Ratings have been updated since the initial condition assessments [conducted in 1999-00]; however, the extent to which schools have deteriorated since the initial assessments has not been determined.”
• Statistics Canada has tracked provincial spending on school infrastructure.  Data released in the fall of 2004 reveals that infrastructure spending on school buildings and maintenance has swung wildly over the last ten years.
• In an effort to meet utilization criteria set out by Alberta Infrastructure, school boards are making educationally inappropriate decisions including using spaces in older building that were never intended or suited to be classrooms for student instruction.

Key recommendations of Alberta’s Commission on Learning have yet to be acted upon:

Alberta’s Commission on Learning made many recommendations that, if implemented, would improve classroom conditions. These include:

• Ensuring that all students have access to adequate counselling, diagnostic and other specialized services necessary for them to succeed;
• Ensuring adequate support is in place when children with special needs are integrated into regular classrooms;
• Providing classroom teachers with adequate support to develop and implement individual program plans for children with special needs;
• Setting province wide standards for the types of technology that should be available in every classroom;
• Providing adequate funding not only for the purchase of hardware and software but also for necessary technical support, training, and continuous upgrading of equipment;
• Providing significantly improved support for aboriginal students and their families;
• Establishing parenting centers in communities across the province with close links to elementary schools.

Government has yet to provide targeted financial assistance to school boards to enable these recommendations to be implemented.


For more information about these and other education issues, visit www.teachers.ab.ca