The evolution of professionalism - Centre for Policy Studies in ...

each district as well. These committees were made up of parents from the school
advisory committees and had the role of advising the administrations on district
level pedagogical questions and to evaluate the progress being made. They also
had the mandate to ensure communication between the parents and each school
community. Finally, an elected representative from each district Parent Advisory
Committee would be part of one of the two Provincial Education Commissions
(anglophone and francophone). These commissions were to advise the Ministry of
Education and approve spending plans.
In accordance with the principle of linguistic duality in education, two
provincial commissions (one francophone, one anglophone) were established. These
commissions advised the Minister of Education on all questions directly related to
the school system and ensured communication between the parents in each district
and in each school. The commissions were made up of a parent representative drawn
from each district as well as three to fi ve members named by the minister.
Established in 1996, this new governance structure had as an objective to
push for greater accountability, to better defi ne of the axes of responsibility, and
to increase parent participation. However, in January 2000, in a document entitled
About Governing Public Education, the Lord government invited the people of
New Brunswick to offer their suggestions and comments to the Special Education
Committee of the Legislative Assembly on the conception of this new structure. The
principle recommendation was to create district education councils, democratically
elected at the local level, and to ensure a serious participation by parents in the
governance structure. This would be a return to the old school districts, abolished
a few years before.
On November 29, 2000, Premier Bernard Lord and Education Minister Elvy
Robichaud unveiled the new governance structure for public education. The main
element in this new structure was the establishment of 14 District Education Councils
(DEC) having local decision-making power. The number of school districts was
reduced from 18 to 14. Each district had its own general directorate and personnel,
which increased the number of administrative units from eight to 14. It was hoped
that the general directorate would focus its attention on one district only and that
decision makers would be more accessible to parents, students, employees, and
members of the collectivity.
On July 1, 2001, An Act to Amend the Education Act came into effect. It
modifi ed the Education Act in order to include a new governance structure for public
education. The act saw the redistribution of powers and responsibilities between
the Ministry of Education and the District Education Councils. The latter would
replace the parent advisory committees in the districts as well as the francophone
and anglophone commissions. In some ways, this represents a return to the structure
in place before 1996, but the school councils are now district education councils at
the school.
142 Section 4: The Atlantic Region