HRSB chairman calling for more diversity in the classroom
Posted Jun 20, 2012 12:13:46 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The chairman of the Halifax Regional School Board says our metro schools need more diversity in the classroom.
Irvine Carvery is bringing forth a motion at Wednesday night’s school board meeting calling for the hiring of more African-Nova Scotian and Mi’Kmaq teachers and staff.
“We need diversity in the classroom so that our students can see themselves reflected in positions of authority,” he says. “To encourage them to want to attain higher levels of education.”
Nova Scotia Teachers Union President Alexis Allen says while she supports the idea, it will be hard to achieve because there aren’t many new teachers being hired due to cutbacks.
“Here we have 185.2 (teaching positions) gone from the system. We’re not replacing them,” she says. “We have 25 permanent teachers still to be placed from a number of term positions that have been in the system for two or three years, that have gone through performance appraisals and proven that they can do the job. They all have to be placed as well.”
Allen says promoting diversity shouldn’t mean that seniority rights are pushed aside.
If the motion passes, Carvery says it will mean a candidate of aboriginal descent would get the teaching job over someone who isn’t, as long as they meet all qualifications of the job.
HRSB meeting agenda for June 20, 2012
