Western Standard
Shay Bottomley
Wednesday March 22, 2023
Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley (L) and Education Critic Sarah Hoffman. Arthur C. Green/Western Standard
The NDP plans to teach Somali curriculum in Alberta schools should it get elected in May, the party announced.
It would provide an opportunity for students to learn the “language and culture of Somalia,” according to NDP Deputy Leader Sarah Hoffman in Monday’s sitting of the Legislative Assembly.
However, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange struck back, arguing that the NDP “were announcing nothing” given the current freedoms of school boards to adapt their curriculums.In the March 21 session, Hoffman said the province needed to move away from the existing “Eurocentric” curriculum, with a Somali curriculum meeting the requirements of a community which is “growing significantly.”
According to the 2016 National Census, 62,550 respondents reported Somali ancestry nationwide, with 14,100 [22.5%] living in Alberta.
The province had a total population of 4,067,175 in the same census.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley announced the policy on Twitter earlier in the day, before Hoffman told MLAs that the NDP would introduce the new curriculum across all schools, and questioned why the UCP “had not made this a priority” over the last four years.
“School authorities have the flexibility to develop or acquire locally developed courses to address particular student and/or community needs including language and culture courses,” replied LaGrange.
“We do than on an ongoing basis in education each and every day. We celebrate every community; the Somali community, the Filipino community — the member opposite made an announcement a week or so ago on the Filipino community.”
Hoffman retorted that the “Eurocentric approach” to education had set off alarm bells over a lack of cultural diversity.
She added that Alberta’s diversity “is its greatest strength” and should be reflected in the curriculum and asked why the UCP was defending the existing “backwards curriculum.”
“I’ll defend our curriculum any day of the week because it is knowledge-rich, and it allows students to learn,” replied LaGrange.
“Our curriculum had more to address antiracism — the previous draft from the previous government [had] zero on antiracism.”