The sign outside of the Yukon Department of Education. Photo Courtesy of Nathan Jordan/CKRW.
Whitehorse, YT – The Yukon NDP is pushing to remove a cap that limits the ability of Yukon students to access locally developed courses by introducing a private members bill that aims to eliminate the provision in the Education Act to better align the territorial curriculum with British Columbia.
Under the current limitations, locally developed courses cannot exceed 20 per cent of a student’s course load. This particularly affects high school students on a semester system as each course they take would account for a quarter of their courseload which effectively bars them from accessing any locally developed course.
The territory has 23 locally developed courses which account for a wide range of subjects and are often in line with not only the wants and needs of students but also the unique needs of rural communities.
Kate White, Leader of the Yukon NDP, highlighted an experience she heard from a master carver who was teaching a student through a locally developed course but the student had to drop it as it wouldn’t count as a credit towards their graduation.
“There are going to be different opportunities in different communities in different school settings to make sure that we don’t lose young people in those those opportunities,” said White. “We should be making sure that, for example, that that carving opportunity should have counted as an art credit towards high school graduation.”
Yukon’s ciriculum is largely in-line with British Columbia, but B.C. had previously removed that limit.
Kate White added that the territory already has struggling graduation rates in rural and remote communities and by removing the cap it should boost graduation rates.
“Anything that that we as lawmakers can do to make education more relevant and interesting and engaging for students is something that we should do… This is just making sure that that, that we’re not limiting people’s ability to take these locally developed courses,” said White.
Minister of Education Jeanie McLean, has previously stated that having a cariculum in line with B.C. helps allow for the development of local courses and suggested the age of the Education Act makes it ripe for updates.
The bill is set to go up for debate in the legislature on Wednesday, April 3rd.
