The Interim Education Plan for the province has been extended.
The Education Council considered the draft on May 4 at the recommendation of the Provincial Education Plan Implementation Team and the next step is endorsement by boards of education and Minister of Education Dustin Duncan. The Prince Albert Catholic Division board of education endorsed a revised draft of the plan at their regular meeting on Monday.
“There was good stakeholder feedback achieved during the process, so the board felt confident to endorse the Provincial Education Plan,” director of education Lorel Trumier said.
Trumier said there is still a lot of work to do before the long-term plan gets completed. That was one of the reasons the board felt comfortable endorsing the Interim Plan for another year.
The Education Council endorsed the 2022-2023 Education Plan with minor wording changes after receiving feedback before it was passed on to the boards of education.
“There was recognition of the impacts of COVID and that we are not ready to go to with a long term plan for the province based on opinions and thoughts and strategies,” Trumier said.
“What we used to think was important before the pandemic is certainly different after the pandemic,” she added.
The three primary areas for focus for the interim plan are reading, learning response and mental health and wellbeing.
Work on the long-term plan will continue, but Trumier said the interim plan is helping provide some guidance.
“It also affirms that there has to be a shift in the next 10 year plan for this province,” she said. “Mental health may take a higher priority than it ever has before and I welcome those conversations at the table. I think that it is time that we reassess that and it will impact it.”
The mental health and wellbeing priority action plan focuses on communication among school systems and government ministries to share knowledge of available supports, services and programming.
Another focus of the plan is the creation and refinement of mental health and wellbeing plans for each school system. These will be used to address concerns and share best practices.
The Interim Provincial Plan was released in August, 2021.
The one-year interim plan will be in place as the 10-year plan is completed.
The provincial-level plan was originally expected to be released in June 2021.
Michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
