Education
February 7, 2013
Opposition Education Critic Misleading the Public: Minister
The Honourable Clyde Jackman, Minister of Education, reacted strongly today to inaccurate statements made by the Opposition Education Critic about both student performance and a School Climate Survey conducted by the Department of Education in 2011.
“First, the Opposition Critic stated that our Grade 4 students are reading below the Canadian average – which is a blatantly false statement,” Minister Jackman said. “In fact, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) released late last year indicated our students are meeting the Canadian average, along with their counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Frankly, we have struggled in the past to meet this benchmark, so when the report was released in December, it was very gratifying. I even issued a news release at the time to highlight the achievement. For the Opposition Education Critic to misrepresent that information is unfair to students, teachers, parents and everybody in the education system who has worked so hard to achieve this goal. It is completely irresponsible.”
Minister Jackman further noted that the Opposition Critic issued a public statement today (Wednesday, February 7) which gave entirely incorrect information about students’ response to a question on school bus safety included in a 2011 School Climate Survey.
“He took one response, to one question, from one grade level – from one specific area of the province, St. John’s – and drew conclusions that are completely inaccurate,” Minister Jackman said. “He references a question asked of Grade 12 students in St. John’s, where over 55 per cent of students responded that they felt safe on the school bus. He then drew the conclusion that 45 per cent therefore felt “unsafe”. What he failed to consider is that, in fact, 33 per cent responded that they felt neither one way nor the other, or that the question did not apply to them, because they did not ride a school bus.”
Minister Jackman acknowledged that even when a small percentage of students feel unsafe on a school bus, for whatever reason, it is an issue to be addressed. But he said this is the second time the Opposition Education Critic has quoted this wildly inaccurate statistic when making reference to the School Climate Surveys. The surveys were conducted for the first time in 2011, in Grades 2, 5 and 7-12 in every school in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“We want to hear what our students have to say about their education and issues which affect them in school – and administrators need to hear it too. That’s why we conducted the surveys in the first place,” said Minister Jackman. “There comes a point where criticism is twisted beyond what is acceptable, and the Opposition Critic has crossed that line. He routinely issues misleading information and statements and it is causing a great disservice to our students and those who work in our education system.”
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Media contact:
Heather May
Director of Communications
Department of Education
709-729-0048, 697-5061
heathermay@gov.nl.ca
2013 02 07 1:40 p.m.