Nova Scotia education minister says misinformation on social media over reforms

FILE: Municipal Affairs Minister Zach Churchill (Photo from The Nova Scotia Legislature)

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s education minister says his tour to get feedback from teachers and principals on proposed education reforms has run into “a lot of misinformation” that is swirling about on social media.

Zach Churchill says the conversations on his tour have been “tough but productive” and he says his department is doing its best to provide accurate information and to answer questions directly.

Churchill says he realizes change breeds a high level of uncertainty that has led people to believe that worst case scenarios could happen as the government prepares to remove about 1,000 principals, vice-principals and supervisors from the union.

He says one belief he’s encountered is that administrators who are removed from the union will lose their salaries and benefits, which he says is “not the case.

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Churchill also says his department has not issued a directive threatening disciplinary action against any principal or vice-principal who speaks out against a report calling for reforms by consultant Avis Glaze, and neither has any school board.

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union says it will hold a strike vote next Tuesday as it combats the removal of about 10 per cent of its membership.

Legislation enacting many of Glaze’s reform recommendations is expected in a legislature session scheduled to begin Feb. 27.

The Glaze report makes 22 recommendations including elimination of the province’s seven English-language school boards and creation of a provincial college of educators to license and regulate the profession.