News Release
Office of the Official Opposition

Opposition says student assistant changes not all positive

June 4, 2007

Opposition Education Critic and MHA for the District of Port De Grave, Roland Butler, says changes to the student assistant program announced today by government are not necessarily all positive improvements.

The Department of Education explained today that allocations of student assistant hours will be made at the end of the school year rather than being assigned at the new school year in September. School boards and not the Department of Education have been charged with this responsibility.

"To begin with, what the department of education has started here is a downloading of responsibility to the school boards ," says Butler. "And to the school boards will go the criticism and all the challenges that go with this particular program. Government seems to have been anxious to remove themselves from the negativity and the problems that have surrounded this program.

"What is also objectionable is that the minister has stated that "despite a decline of approximately 5,000 students across the province over a two-year period, the number of hours for student assistants has been increased by four per cent". "The decline in the general population may not correlate with a similar decline in the number of students needing special services. The funding released to the school boards should be based solely on the profiles of special needs students The minister also failed to indicate what percentage of needs are still unmet, despite this small increase in student assistant hours."

Another criticism of the revised program says Butler is that there is no clear provision for an independent appeal board. "It appears that come September, parents who have concerns will still have to go back to the board who made the initial decision about their child’s requirements. And what is the process at the end of the school year should a parent be unsatisfied with the allocation of hours for their child? Also, what happens if a child’s circumstances change over the summer and they now require a student assistant or get relocated to another school?"

The Liberal MHA acknowledges the one aspect of the revised program he sees as a good step is that parents will know at the end of one school year exactly how many hours of student assistant time will be made available to their special needs child in the following year. "That has always been an annual issue of contention with parents and it is good to see this part of the problem addressed so that there is no longer this uncertainty that compounds the process.

"Whether or not there will be a smoother transition in the school year has yet to be determined, especially considering that the recommendation arising from the long-overdue Pathway model might also be a complicating factor in the new school year."

Media Contact:
Darrell Mercer
Director of Communications
Office of the Official Opposition
709-729-6151 or 709-687-0477