Public school students in Morinville settled into new modular classrooms last month. CBC

The provincial government has tabled new legislation which it says will help students in Morinville, Alta. access secular education.

Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said Wednesday that the town's nearly 9,000 residents can expect "adequate" classroom space for students seeking schooling outside the Catholic education system by September 2012, if the bill becomes law.

Lukaszuk said the St. Albert and Sturgeon Valley School Districts Establishment Act would help address what he called "decades of a system that has not been adequate."

The bill calls for changes to school-districts in the area, and proposes making that "a permanent site" be built for secular education, according to a statement from the education ministry.

Morinville's historical origins led to a situation in which all four schools in the town are run by the publicly-funded Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional School Division. Parents who wished to have their children educated in a secular classroom had to send them to schools outside Morinville.

But local parents fought back and last year, and the neighbouring Sturgeon School Division agreed to offer non-religious education.

Starting last September, the students attended class in three different locations in and around Morinville, and in January they moved into new modular classrooms outside Georges P. Vanier Catholic School. The modular classrooms allow them to share a gymnasium and a library with Georges P. Vanier students.

The new legislation came about after some parents filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission because they felt the province hadn't acted fast enough to ensure their children had equal access to a secular education.

They were frustrated with the current temporary set-up, as well as with the province's unwillingness to intervene in the dispute.