Juno News - Alberta Education Minister SPEAKS OUT against political ideology in schools

00:00:00.000 Alberta has introduced a law to remove ideology from classrooms.

00:00:09.620 It would ban teachers and school boards from pushing their politics or other social statements

00:00:15.300 or views onto their students. Education and Child Care Minister Dimitrios Nikolaitis says

00:00:21.640 the bill is also designed to give parents for say over their children's education.

00:00:26.240 Our guest today is Minister Demetrius Nicolaitis. Welcome to the show, sir.

00:00:31.120 My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.

00:00:33.340 Talk about this bill, because it is an interesting one. It has made national news.

00:00:38.340 Exactly what kind of ideology do you want to remove from classrooms?

00:00:43.400 What we really want to do with this bill is make sure that school divisions,

00:00:48.640 principals, or teachers, or other leaders are not imposing their personal views onto students.

00:00:56.240 Of course, everybody has their own personal views, and that's fine.

00:00:59.520 However, we firmly believe that within our education system, students should be taught how to think, not what to think.

00:01:07.520 And in addition to some of those provisions, we're also adding more protection to student voices.

00:01:14.740 And we've made explicit changes to ensure that, again, teachers, principals, or others are allowing and facilitating diverse viewpoints of students to come to the forefront.

00:01:26.080 we want students to be able to engage in important conversations and have important topics but we

00:01:31.920 want them to be able to formulate their own views independently our education system should provide

00:01:36.400 them with the facts and the information so that they can formulate their own opinions

00:01:41.760 yeah i mean there's nothing new about teachers giving their views in a classroom i certainly

00:01:47.520 remember teachers doing that back when i was a kid in grade school i mean it was only later on

00:01:53.120 you realize that it was just their opinion that they were expressing. It sounds to me

00:01:58.480 that you suspect that there are a lot of radical teachers out there who are in school specifically

00:02:04.880 to push a particular political view, probably hard left, onto their students. Is this what

00:02:11.120 you're trying to prevent? Well, unfortunately, some concerning

00:02:15.600 situations have come to light over the past few months and years. I'll provide you a couple of

00:02:20.560 of examples. As recently as January of this year, a recording was leaked about a teacher in Fort

00:02:26.000 Saskatchewan who was speaking very negatively about people from Fort McMurray and people who

00:02:32.900 support the oil and gas sector in the province. Another example back, this is a little bit further

00:02:38.900 back, but in June of 2023, a Muslim girl who decided not to attend school one day because

00:02:46.780 the school is organizing some pride activities that day, was berated by her teacher and told

00:02:51.900 that she should not be in Canada and should not be there if she didn't support those types of

00:02:59.200 activities. This is very concerning. Our schools must be places of learning, must be areas where

00:03:05.780 we teach kids the foundations, reading, writing, math, critical thinking, how to excel, and not be

00:03:13.260 places where we villainize students or, um, or push a certain narrative onto their opinions.

00:03:22.220 Yeah. I mean, the problem happens when you have teachers pushing that narrative

00:03:26.140 and students thinking that it's fact, you know, they can't figure out that what the teacher is

00:03:32.460 saying, because this is an authoritative, this is an authority figure, right? Standing at the front

00:03:37.740 of the class, telling you things. And you listen to this person, you think in a child's mind that

00:03:42.780 this person is telling me the truth, that this is the way things are. And they get a hold of your

00:03:47.100 kids, you know, like the Jesuits say, you know, give us your kid up until age five and we own

00:03:52.700 them for life. You know, these teachers have access to students and they think that they can

00:03:58.620 impart onto them their views. And the children are not equipped intellectually to determine

00:04:06.140 the difference between this person's opinion and fact if you know what i'm saying yeah absolutely

00:04:15.020 i mean the the example that i just provided a moment ago about the muslim girl this was in a

00:04:18.860 junior high school so i i can only imagine you know if i was a 13 year old 14 year old and being

00:04:25.340 told that i don't belong in canada um i i mean i i would imagine that i would have some serious

00:04:31.020 reflection at that age. So that can be incredibly damaging. That kind of commentary has no place

00:04:36.720 in our classrooms. Moreover, we, in Alberta, of course, we require mandatory literacy and

00:04:43.120 numeracy screening for every child in K-3. And our results show that one in four, 25% of kids

00:04:50.500 lack basic reading, writing, and math skills. So we have to ensure that we're focused on building

00:04:56.280 those foundations. We're focused on giving kids the education that they need to succeed.

00:05:00.320 and not dipping our toe into social issues, political issues.

00:05:06.120 There's no place for that.

00:05:08.220 That's not to say we don't talk about politics.

00:05:10.520 Of course, we have to, within a social studies curriculum, talk about politics.

00:05:14.680 We have to talk about world events.

00:05:16.560 Absolutely.

00:05:17.560 And we want to encourage that.

00:05:19.020 We want students to be able to express their diverse views.

00:05:22.060 But we're also asking our system leaders to recognize that when they're having those conversations,

00:05:26.940 try and be objective, try and be impartial.

00:05:30.320 and try to encourage both sides of the debate to come forward.

00:05:33.840 Right. Present both sides equally and then say, where do you stand on this?

00:05:41.040 Which is kind of what the media should be doing.

00:05:44.320 Absolutely. Those were some of my best moments and some of the moments that I remember the

00:05:51.440 most from my education was when we were actually challenged in our own thinking.

00:05:56.880 Say, well, you know, you have this view, but have you considered this alternative view or why don't you consider that?

00:06:02.760 And to actually, you know, look a little bit critically at the thoughts that we hold ourselves or for me, some of the most profound moments in my education.

00:06:12.000 Are you getting some pushback as expected from teachers, unions, that sort of thing who feel that this is going to stymie teachers?

00:06:19.460 Teachers are going to feel uncertain about what they're doing and they're going to be affected somehow negatively.

00:06:26.880 by this law where do you position yourself on that no that i i don't believe that that'll be

00:06:32.800 the case at all um you know i know the vast majority of teachers are uh incredible professionals

00:06:41.040 who who work diligently to to provide a strong education to children and what the bill actually

00:06:46.800 does as i mentioned is help create a little bit more of a road map as to how to have these

00:06:52.960 conversations so all we're saying is if you want to have some conversations about what's happening

00:06:58.560 in you know world affairs today or what's happening in the province or the country politically socially

00:07:04.560 make sure that you're presenting the topic impartially objectively and again make sure

00:07:10.000 that you are encouraging students to bring diverse views forward again i know that there

00:07:16.160 there have been situations where a student has an alternative perspective and it's it's not

00:07:22.000 supported because maybe it's not the mainstream view and we have to ensure debate not just for

00:07:28.240 the development of those individual children but for the health and well-being of our entire society

00:07:33.680 if we lose the ability to have honest and open debate about sensitive subjects the entire health

00:07:42.160 of our democracy and our society is at risk now i take it there will be disciplinary action taken

00:07:48.720 against teachers who violate the rules. Are we talking about firing teachers, suspending teachers,

00:07:55.360 if it comes out that they are pushing, say, their views about the oil sector or the environment or

00:08:04.960 sexuality, for instance, or the trans issue, that kind of thing, if they push these subjects onto

00:08:12.240 students so we do have of course a teacher code of conduct in place and the school divisions

00:08:20.720 themselves are the ones who have final responsibility when it comes to to hiring

00:08:27.360 but one of the things that we we have done recently this uh began back in 2023 is we created

00:08:35.280 more independence around the teacher discipline process it used to be the entire process used to

00:08:40.240 be housed within the Alberta Teachers Association. But we moved that function out of the union

00:08:47.840 and established it through an arm's length agency to provide more independence to teacher

00:08:54.320 discipline process. So that process will continue. And if any individual believes that there's been

00:09:01.120 any violation of the new rules, should the legislation pass and become law, that mechanism

00:09:06.000 will be available to them. Now, this is also a bill that wants to allow parents to play a bigger

00:09:15.520 role in their kids' education. Can you talk a little bit about what your expectations are there?

00:09:22.400 Yeah, absolutely. My view is that parents are the primary drivers of their child's education

00:09:27.760 and have to retain full authority at all times over the delivery of education to their children

00:09:33.840 in terms of guidance and direction. So what we're doing is in the Education Act, we're asking school

00:09:42.020 boards, so we'll be directing them, to update policies and procedures that they have regarding

00:09:49.800 parental involvement so that parents are involved in more of a meaningful way rather than any type

00:09:58.400 of a symbolic gesture. We want parents to have, be able to have a greater say. And again, I firmly

00:10:04.800 believe that when you have parents and educators working closely together to support the best

00:10:11.640 interests of a child, you absolutely create the best possible condition. So we need to make sure

00:10:16.560 that parents have a strong seat at the table. I would think that views around the resource sector 0.96

00:10:23.900 would be particularly touchy in Alberta, where you have so many people employed in the resource

00:10:28.720 sector. And it's a polarizing issue amongst those on the left, which believes that it's going to

00:10:37.340 destroy the planet. We see the new leader of the NDP federally saying no more pipelines,

00:10:44.800 keep things the way they are, but no growth around the resource sector. And so it's a major economic

00:10:51.160 issue. And if you have schools as a hotbed of leftist Marxist ideology, pushing the idea that

00:11:01.120 the resource sector is bad, and if your parents work in the oil sector, well, they're bad,

00:11:05.700 they're destroying the planet. I can see where this would cause major problems at home.

00:11:10.380 Is this, at its core, what this law is designed to stop?

00:11:15.880 I think, you know, there have been some concerns in this regard because we did, as I mentioned

00:11:22.660 earlier, we did hear some examples of this as recently as January of this year. I think,

00:11:29.000 you know, ultimately, our intent with this bill is to ensure that our school divisions

00:11:35.740 and our entire education system is laser focused on student success and academic success.

00:11:41.320 I mentioned a moment ago about some of the concerning numbers regarding student literacy, numeracy abilities, their abilities to read, write, and in other areas.

00:11:53.240 About a quarter of students right now, as I mentioned, are lacking in those basic skill set.

00:11:58.760 And so we have to make sure our education system is not concerning itself with the politics of the day, social issues of the day.

00:12:08.180 we have to ensure that it is hyper-focused on educating our children, helping them read,

00:12:14.660 write, do math, and excel. And so there's a suite of changes being proposed in this bill to the

00:12:22.140 Education Act. There's also changes that would give the provincial government a greater say

00:12:26.600 over the establishment of school board priorities, in addition to some of these additional rules

00:12:33.120 about neutrality and impartiality. And as well, there are other changes in the bill that will

00:12:38.640 mandate reading, writing, and math intervention if a student is being flagged as at risk.

00:12:49.360 It also prohibits violence. We've heard serious concerns about violence and aggression in the

00:12:58.000 classroom so the entirety of the bill and the vision behind the bill is to help ensure we're

00:13:04.720 focused on addressing violence supporting kids in their ability to read write and keeping other

00:13:11.520 issues out of the classroom i'm wondering if students will be encouraged to i don't want to

00:13:17.280 use their words rat out their teachers but that's basically it i mean if they go to school sometimes

00:13:22.800 you see videos produced but if the if the cameras are taken away or the phones are taken away when

00:13:27.680 they first walk into their classroom and they won't be able to do that. But will students be

00:13:32.400 encouraged to raise the issue publicly or through various organizations, perhaps your department or

00:13:39.520 some school board, if they feel uncomfortable about views that were expressed in the classroom?

00:13:45.920 Because otherwise, how are you going to know that it's going on?

00:13:50.640 Yeah. The bill doesn't make any additional provisions in that regard, but I think it

00:13:55.920 it goes without saying, at any point in time, even before this bill, if any student, any parent,

00:14:02.240 or anyone has any concerns with anything that's happening in our education system, they can raise

00:14:07.980 that. They can raise that to the school principal, the school authority, my office. There are a

00:14:12.800 number of different vehicles and mechanisms in which they can raise those concerns. So

00:14:17.220 I would openly encourage anyone who has any concerns to raise those through the appropriate

00:14:22.700 channels. And again, I'm confident that we can keep our education system focused

00:14:29.740 on supporting our kids and staying out of unnecessary political conversations.

00:14:35.260 I'm wondering too, is there a way to filter out political or environmental radicals before

00:14:39.900 they get into the school system through their training? I mean, you go right up the supply

00:14:45.740 chain for teachers and find, who's applying to be a teacher here? What do we know about this

00:14:52.220 individual or do they have views that are inconsistent with those that of those we want

00:15:00.060 people in the classroom teaching you know they have like vehemently strong views that we think

00:15:05.820 that they might be a risk once they get into the classroom in front of students

00:15:11.820 yeah so of course the school divisions themselves are the ones who are responsible for all the

00:15:18.060 the hiring practices. However, the government of Alberta, we set the standards for teacher

00:15:24.420 certification. And, you know, I have heard some concerns. I have a colleague who, a friend

00:15:32.980 whose daughter is training right now to be a teacher. And she was telling me that one of the

00:15:40.100 things that she was learning recently at the university as part of her Bachelor of Education

00:15:44.640 program was about the wheel of privilege. Now, I really struggle to understand the relevance

00:15:52.480 of that to being able to manage a classroom, help a student read and write. And there have

00:16:00.900 been other studies that have occurred in the past, which demonstrated that a significant

00:16:06.200 component, a majority of teachers lack basic understanding regarding the science of reading

00:16:14.760 and the other elements that are critical to the foundation of literacy and numeracy.

00:16:20.700 So I do have some questions and some concerns about teacher preparedness, not just from that

00:16:29.200 side, but also from an aggression and violence standpoint. Surveys from the Alberta Teachers

00:16:34.880 Association shows that the majority of teachers do not feel well-equipped to be able to handle

00:16:41.280 aggression or violence in their classrooms. And so I have questions and I want to

00:16:49.280 conduct some more exploration into how we're preparing our teachers to be able to succeed

00:16:53.600 in the classroom. Yeah, I would think that would be a big part of it. Prevent the problem from

00:16:59.200 starting, go right up the ladder and take a close look at people gravitating towards the teaching

00:17:05.920 profession and make sure that those people don't see it as a view to push radical views onto young

00:17:12.000 people. That's the way I would see it. I think we need to, similar to the bill,

00:17:18.640 make sure that we're focused on giving our teachers the skills and competencies that they need to

00:17:25.600 help kids learn how to read, how to write, build the foundations of numeracy,

00:17:32.960 how to manage complex classrooms. Our classrooms are more dynamic today than ever before. There's

00:17:37.760 way more complexity and cognitive and learning challenges, disabilities that they need to

00:17:44.080 address. So I think we have to ensure that we're setting them up for success in that way. And I

00:17:49.600 do have some questions and concerns from things that I've been hearing.

00:17:52.080 Thank you so much for coming on the show.

00:17:54.740 We really appreciate it.

00:17:56.420 Of course.

00:17:57.420 Yeah, my pleasure.

00:17:58.420 Anytime.

00:17:59.420 Education minister and child care minister, Dimitrios Nicoletis.

00:18:03.020 If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great independent journalism by becoming a

00:18:06.760 premier member of Juno News, go to junonews.com backslash straight up.

00:18:12.580 You can find the link below that helps us do what we do.

00:18:15.840 Thank you so much.

00:18:16.840 time.

Juno News - April 03, 2026

Alberta Education Minister SPEAKS OUT against political ideology in schools

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript