N.B. proposes law giving students seats on district education councils
Last Updated: Thursday, May 21, 2009 | 7:10 AM AT
CBC News
New Brunswick high school students will soon get a say in how the education system is run as the provincial government has introduced legislation to create a student seat on the district education councils.
Under Education Minister Kelly Lamrock's legislation tabled on Wednesday, there will be one student seat on each of the 18 councils.
The student representative won't be directly elected like the other board members. Instead, student council presidents from the high schools in the district will choose the individual.
The representatives probably won't be able to participate in personnel discussions, but Lamrock said other than that issue, they will be full voting members of the councils.
"I think having students at the front line saying when they feel engaged and when they don't will make for better decision-making at all levels," Lamrock said.
Lamrock said many of the concerns he has heard from students are similar to his own.
" A lot of them have said, 'We need to be more engaged in our classes. We want to learn more by being free to do things and research things than by being sat down in a chair and told to memorize facts. We want to learn experientially. We want more choices at the curriculum level.'"
MLA shares support of students on boards
Liberal MLA Burt Paulin, who is now 53 but was 18 when he was elected to his local school board as the youngest board member in the country, said he spoke up for students who were disciplined under a strict policy on missing school.
"Sometimes it was because of a family situation, a context, an economic context, and that brought a new perspective to discussions," Paulin said.
Lamrock hopes to have the student representatives in place by September.
