Proposed changes to district education councils (DECs) in the Anglophone sector will remove all control, according to a former DEC chair.
A new Education Act was introduced in the legislature this week with the goal of making the public education system more accountable and responsive to the needs of children, families, and communities through improvements to its governance structure.
In the Anglophone sector, district education councils will change from a decision-making body to an advisory body, and superintendents will now report directly to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
Rob Fowler says this will mean DECs will become a parent school support committee (PSSC) at the district level, in just an advisory role, “We had local control, in the sense that we set our goals and objectives for the district and the superintendent using policy governance, and we were able to reflect local concerns in those policies. That’s gone now.”
He says the changes will completely centralize all control to the minister or the premier’s office, and he doesn’t feel that is healthy for local control.
Fowler says it’s unfortunate that Education Minister Bill Hogan has chosen to gut the councils instead of taking their views into consideration, “DECs are not going to have that community input into the process, it’s just gone. Now they’re reporting directly to the deputy and the minister and even things like approving local budgets are now taken away. So overall, I think DECs today are pretty much neutered.”
Fowler hasn’t spoken to local parents about their concerns but he has seen a lot on social media about a loss of a community voice.
