The Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) is partnering with British Columbia (B.C.) for the renewal of the Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum.
“Our curriculum is out of date,” said Shannon Barnett-Aikman, assistant deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. “This decision is a result of extensive research and analysis, and more than 40 engagement consultation sessions with Indigenous governments education bodies.”
“We rely on provincial partners for many aspects of our school curriculum, particularly high school,” she continued.
In 2019, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment looked into the curriculum of different western Canadian provinces.
“Research found that B.C.’s curriculum is clearly the most aligned to the N.W.T.,” said Shannon Barnett-Aikman. “B.C.’s curriculum is one of the first in Canada to focus on competencies-based learning.
“It focuses on literacy and numeracy skills as well as financial literacy,” she continued. “It begins providing career education in the early grades, and it offers applied design skills and technologies curriculum.”
Alberta, the long-time partner of NWT education, also renewed its entire K - 12 curriculum.
“Changing the N.W.T. was inevitable,” said Barnett-Aikman.
The N.W.T.’s new curriculum will be implemented using a “phased-in approach” over several years.
Education partners, including Indigenous governments and various education bodies, will play roles in teacher training, as well as adapting classroom resources and large-scale student assessment tools.
On top of the secondary education-based benefits of B.C.’s curriculum, B.C. also includes Indigenous knowledge in teachings as well, which was another significant aspect the N.W.T.’s partnership.
“B.C., has designed its curriculum to be flexible, which allows us here in the N.W.T. to adapt it to fit our territorial and cultural contexts,” said Barnett-Aikman. “This can even happen at the local level by incorporating place, school, and community ways of learning and doing.”
Current N.W.T. curricula, like that of “languages, Northern studies, health and wellness, hunter education, and junior kindergarten - kindergarten” will remain in NWT schools.
Thanks were extended to Alberta education for years of partnership.