Poste - Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children

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C A N A D I A N C O A L I T I O N F O R T H E R I G H T S O F C H I L D R E N development of life skills. Since 1986, the program has trained 30,000 teachers so they can help young people from kindergarten to Grade 12 develop positive social behaviours. 37 Development of Talents: In every province, children are offered varying opportunities from kindergarten through high school to develop their talents and abilities through music, dance and drama. Development of Mental Abilities: All curricula are designed to further develop and enhance existing mental abilities in the child. Efforts are made to assist children with special needs and to remove barriers to their development whenever possible. Special studies may be available to gifted children to enhance their special abilities. Development of Physical Abilities: In every province studied, healthy living and physical education are part of the curriculum from the earliest grades and throughout high school. Development of Respect for Human Rights In this United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004), Canadian education systems are promoting respect for human rights in different ways. For example, the Maritime Provinces Education Foundation has developed a Human Rights in the Elementary School/ Classroom resource tool to assist with the organization of human rights activities and practices in Maritime schools. 38 The United Nations Association in Canada has produced the Action Guide: A Human Rights Resource Manual for Secondary Schools, distributed to approximately 3,000 secondary schools across the country. 39 In 1998, Alberta elementary and secondary students participated in a poster and essay contest to honour the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Most schools’ human rights education is part of the social studies or global education curriculum. The Council of 82 Ministers of Education, Canada, notes that schools often link human rights education with democracy education, despite the fact that they are distinct learning objectives. 40 Children’s Rights It appears that children’s rights education has not yet been widely adopted in school curricula across the country, although some jurisdictions have initiated promising work in this regard. For example, the Greater Victoria #61 School Board in British Columbia pilottested a primary-level curriculum on children’s rights and implemented it in 1998-99, with plans to consider wider provincial implementation the following year. 41 The Cape Breton-Victoria Region in Nova Scotia offers children’s rights education to over 60 classes at the Grade 6 level. The Children’s Rights Centre at the University College of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia developed the curriculum with funding from Canadian Heritage. It is currently pilot-testing a Grade 8 curriculum in the school district. In February 1998, the province’s Department of Education and Culture confirmed its intention to integrate the children’s rights curriculum within the elementary program for all public schools and to translate it into French. 42 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child A growing number of schools across the country are integrating principles of the Convention, including nondiscrimination and best interests, into administration, behaviour codes and teacher training. Some schools actively promote student participation (article 12) and clearly outline students’ rights. The Tillicum elementary school in Victoria, for example, has a Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. 43 Equality Rights Efforts have been made to advance the equality of minorities in the education system, although the effectiveness of these efforts is unknown. 44 In Quebec, for example, teacher training includes work on gender equity issues, such as recognizing gender-based discrimination and selecting bias-free teaching materials. The province also has special training to assist teachers in adapting to the needs of multi-ethnic student bodies and developing closer school/home relationships. Ontario has resources for teachers, such as Teaching Human Rights in
Ontario. British Columbia has developed training for male instructors teaching girls in non-traditional fields. It also has guidelines to develop inclusive curricula for all groups. Manitoba organized summer institutes on antiracist and multicultural education from 1989 to 1994. 45 Visible minority teachers and administrators are underrepresented in the education system. However, Nova Scotia is actively increasing the number of visible minority persons on staff and it has courses on race relations and cross-cultural understanding. Ontario’s Ministry of Education and Training had projects to improve access to the teaching profession for candidates from racial and ethnocultural minority groups between 1994 and 1996. 46 Voices Coalition Questionnaire: Do you think that your teachers generally treat students with respect? Yes, I think the teachers are very good at our school. —Ryan, aged 12, Nova Scotia Not really. We’re treated more like small children. We’re only allowed to use one out of four doors. We’re not allowed upstairs during lunch time. There could be good reasons for these, but they’ve never bothered to explain them to us. They do tell us to respect people, but the fact that they don’t respect us doesn’t give us much reason to respect them. —Kim, aged 14, Newfoundland Yes, I definitely do. The teachers I’ve had have a lot of respect for students [and] are glad to help with school work and problems. You may run into a teacher that you don’t like but even then you will still receive respect. —Emily, aged 16, Ontario No...In my class, some kids did not understand and the teacher said: “Stupid, you understand nothing. It shows that you’re in special ed.” (translation) —Pascal, aged 13, Quebec H O W D O E S C A N A D A M E A S U R E U P ? 83 Culture, Language, National Values, Other Civilizations Respect for one’s parents and cultural identity: multiculturalism, diversity and anti-discrimination There are varying efforts to promote multiculturalism, diversity and anti-discrimination in schools across the country. The promotion of multiculturalism is protected in section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and enunciated in Canada’s Multiculturalism Act. The rights of individuals are protected in national and provincial legislation and human rights codes, as well as in education acts. 47 All jurisdictions review curriculum and learning resources in an effort to eliminate racial, ethnic, cultural, gender and socio-economic biases. 48 Teachers are encouraged to promote an understanding and appreciation of all cultures in the classroom, 49 although the effectiveness of these efforts is unknown. Efforts to teach respect for diversity have been constrained in some provinces recently. For example, the Ontario Education Department eliminated its Division of Anti-Racism, Access and Equity in 1997 and recently announced plans to remove violence prevention, antidiscrimination training and education about Aboriginal peoples from proposed secondary school curriculum guidelines, citing existing policies in these areas. However, according to Ken Ramphal of the Ontario Anti-Racist Multicultural Educator’s Network: Teachers rarely look at policy statements, they will look at curriculum documents...which will translate into classroom instruction. To say it is included in their policy documents and not curriculum documents is to really encourage teachers not to use it. 50 A 1997 survey of the Canadian Council for Multicultural and Intercultural Education found that multicultural programming in western Canadian schools is marginalized because it competes as “one more provincial expectation” among too many other provincial priorities. 51 Furthermore, school reforms across the country make the priority of equity and diversity in Canadian education unclear. 52
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THE UNCONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF T
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C A N A D I A N C O A L I T I O N F
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articles 13, 14 and 15 (cont’d)
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article 23 (cont’d) NEEDS DIALOGU
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article 28 and 29 (cont’d) NEEDS
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Article 13 The Right to Freedom of
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(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; a
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Page 38 and 39: Promoting the Freedoms C A N A D I
Page 40 and 41: Endnotes C A N A D I A N C O A L I
Page 68 and 69: Coalition Questionnaire: C A N A D
Page 76 and 77: Bibliography Children with Disabili
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Page 110 and 111: Visa Restrictions C A N A D I A N C
Page 112 and 113: Timeliness of the Process C A N A D
Page 114 and 115: Lack of appeal mechanism C A N A D
Page 122 and 123: Process and Protocols PROCESS: Key
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This is aproject of the CanadianCoa
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Poste - Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children

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