Education Minister should be replaced: NSTU
Posted Apr 12, 2012 03:43:31 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Minister of Education continues to come under scrutiny over her handling of budget cuts. The most recent charges aren’t coming from the opposition, but the Nova Scotia Teachers Union instead.
NSTU president Alexis Allen is calling on the Premier to immediately replace Ramona Jennex.
“Education is not a priority for this minister, it’s as simple as that,” says Allen. “Her department has cut $65 million from the education budget over the past two years at a time when Nova Scotia is already the second lowest in funding per pupil in Canada. These cuts will mean the loss of as many as 700 teaching positions. The Minister is supposed to be advocating for education, not destroying it.”
Allen also accuses Jennex of interfering in the budget deliberations of the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board after the minister ordered it to stop its planned layoffs of all of its librarians, pending a provincial review.
Jennex says she’s very disappointed by the calls for her dismissal.
“I’ve been a teacher for 30 years before entering in to politics,” she says. “I am passionate about making sure that we have a system that provides an absolute excellent service to all of our students. I am fighting for students every single day. That’s my job.”
Premier Darrell Dexter says Jennex is doing a fine job as Education Minister, adding that he has no plans of replacing her.
