Community Learning in Winnipeg

DR. LLOYD AXWORTHY, President & Vice-Chancellor, The University of Winnipeg, and EPI Board of Director

Building on its founding values and on the important and longstanding work underway throughout its many departments, the University of Winnipeg has, over the past five years, instituted a series of innovative learning initiatives in an effort to deal with issues of access and community capacity building.  The experience we have gained in these projects convinces me that these initiatives in their cumulative effect can reposition the University in ways that are responsive to the learning needs of our community and the broader challenges of our times.

We call these initiatives community learning, a term that describes the active integration of the University into the social, cultural, and educational life of the community.  It recognizes the responsibility of the University to function in an accessible manner and to open itself up to the wide diversity of knowledge and experience represented within society. READ MORE...

When benchmarked against 16 peer countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada earns an “A” grade in the Education and Skills category. It ranks 2nd behind Finland. Canada achieves “A” and “B” grades on 13 of 15 indicators. Only Finland has a better report card. Canada’s strength is in delivering a high-quality education to people between the ages of 5 and 25 with comparatively modest spending.
Source: Canadian Institute of Well-Being

THE NEWS

Online Learning Projects Squeezed Out As Canada Expands Its Wireless World
Kate Hammer, Toronto Globe and Mail
It was a Robin Hood-type arrangement. Ten years ago, when an internet venture called Inukshuk was granted a slice of Canada's airwaves, the company agreed to share the profits with Web-based educational initiatives. That partnership financed modest but important projects such as the development of an animated American Sign Language dictionary for children, and a on-line audio archive of Tlingit words and phrases.

Native Problems Are National Issues
Mindelle Jacobs, Winnipeg Sun
In the Northland School Division almost all of the pupils are native. Only 20% of them finish high school. In 2008-09, less than 30% of the Grade 9 students reached an acceptable reading level, compared to the 82% provincial average. Northland’s experience unfortunately reflects that of many aboriginal communities, both on and off reserve. Canada continues to import thousands of temporary workers to fill various jobs — even in the midst of a recession. Instead, we should be doing whatever is necessary to keep aboriginals in school.

'We See Success in Our Kids'
Sarah O’Donnell, Edmonton Journal
Attendance is a big issue at many Northland schools. It is the kind of systemic problem that prompted Education Minister Dave Hancock this week to disband Northland's board of trustees and appoint an official trustee to oversee the education of the aboriginal communities that make up Northland. A team was also appointed to identify the problems that lead to low test scores, high teacher turnover and dismal high school completion rates for the student population, which is 95-per-cent First Nations, Metis and Inuit.

Choice in Education Earns High Marks
Calgary Herald
T he jury may still be out on the pros and cons of single-gender schools, but the verdict is in when it comes to parental choice in education -- it's always a good thing. The Calgary Catholic School Division is thinking of establishing a single-gender school, depending on the level of parent interest. Choice -- based, of course, on a requisite level of interest -- should always be the prime motivation when school boards are considering providing alternative programs.

Ontario Eyes Lower Child Care Standards
Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star
Ontario is considering regulatory changes that would allow fewer staff to care for larger groups of young children in daycares as the province moves to all-day kindergarten. The proposed changes to the Day Nurseries Act primarily affect children up to age 4 and are “intended to enhance operator flexibility during the implementation of full-day early learning,” according to a discussion document from the provincial ministry of children and youth services obtained by the Star.

Unbowed By Setbacks, Obama Sticks to His Agenda
Konrad Yakabuski, Toronto Globe and Mail
Barack Obama, unbowed by a flurry of recent setbacks, is vowing to press on with a jam-packed liberal agenda that includes health-care reform, climate-change legislation, investments in research, education and green energy, and a new deal for gays in the military.

Ottawa's Job Recovery Faces Big Challenges
Bert Hill, Ottawa Citizen
The question ahead for Ottawa's job recovery this year is a simple one: Will the federal government, which added almost 9,000 new jobs last year, continue to be the backstop that carries the economy.
 
School Board Enacts Ban on Energy Drinks
Janet French, Regina Leader-Post
A Saskatchewan school board is banning energy drinks from school property. Senior division administrators with the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools enacted a new nutrition policy last week that not only forbids energy drinks, but will also prompt the gradual elimination of diet pops, sweetened juices, flavoured milks and waters, and sports drinks from Catholic school vending machines, serveries and school events.

U of C Tuition Could Rise 47%
Jamie Komarnicki, Canada.com
University of Calgary officials are floating major tuition hikes of up to 47 per cent in professional programs next year -- figures student representatives call "terrifying" and far larger than imagined. U of C is taking advantage of a one-time offer from the province to apply for increases in base tuition amounts in certain programs.

It's Jobs That Make a Real Economic Recovery
The Great Recession is over – or it seems that almost everyone is saying so. But is it? For 11/2 million or more Canadians, this recession will not be over until they find worthwhile jobs. Thus the economic, social and political problem for 2010 and beyond is jobs.

Poor White Boys 'Not Catching Up'
Hannah Richardson, BBC News
Efforts to help poor white boys catch up with their peers in the early years of school appear to have stalled. Official data on assessments at age five show three-quarters of the poorest white boys in England are still not achieving a good level of development.

U.S. Suspends Aid to Kenya Education Ministry, Ambassador Says
David McKenzie, CNN
America's top diplomat to Kenya has announced that the United States has suspended a $7 million "capacity building" program for the country's Ministry of Education, citing corruption. "The United States shares the deep concern of Kenya's development partners and the Kenyan people regarding the continuous revelations of large-scale corruption," Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Nairobi, Kenya.

Parents Advised to Ignore My School Website
ABC News- Australia
The Victorian Association of State Secondary Schools is urging parents to ignore the Federal Government's My School website when deciding where to enroll their children. The website was launched yesterday morning and compares schools by using their numeracy and literacy results. But the association's president Brian Burgess, says the comparisons are not accurate because the health and welfare of the students is not considered and enrolment numbers are not calculated.

Haiti’s List of Needs Includes Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Norma Greenaway, Edmonton Journal
International businessman Yves Savain says he can look five years down the road in Haiti and see tens of thousands of workers earning $4 or more an hour producing everything from shirts and socks to electronics. Savain, who left Haiti as a teenager in 1963, says Haiti’s large, willing, low-wage workforce will become a major investment draw if what’s left of the Haitian government and the international community come up with an effective long-term recovery plan that doesn’t repeat past mistakes.

The Loophole That Allows Smacking in Some Schools
Gary Eason, BBC News
Smacking is banned in schools in the UK. Or is it? In general terms, it is. But concerns have been raised again in England about a clause that still permits corporal punishment in educational establishments that have children for less than 12.5 hours a week.

Supporting Vulnerable Young People in Transition
This report provides an overview of key evidence and thinking on the complex issues around helping vulnerable young people in transition. It provides a context and an analysis to support Quartet Community Foundation in working with others to design and develop an action plan to address the challenges facing young people in the transition process. There has been linkage with a parallel University of Bristol study on youth in transition. The study has focused on the needs of vulnerable young people in transition across the four unitary authorities (UAs) of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It adopts a broad view of what transition might mean and demonstrates that vulnerable young people experience difficulties around points of transition in their lives, depending on their particular circumstances and experiences. Over fifty agencies and organizations were approached in both statutory and voluntary sectors. In addition group discussions and one-to-one interviews were held with twenty seven young people.

Beyond ‘Doing School’: From ‘Stressed Out’ To ‘Engaged in Learning
Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, shares insights and approaches developed by the Challenge Success Initiative, a research and intervention project she co-founded in 2004 to address the widespread disengagement and poor physical and mental health issues facing secondary students in the U.S.