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all actors in the Newfoundland and Labrador education system since 1990 was the
fundamental reform of the delivery system based on denominational schools.
Denominational Schooling in Newfoundland and Labrador
The NLTA participated in the early push for provincial school board
reorganization in the mid-eighties with the publication of Exploring New
Pathways. (Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association, 1986). This
report, presented to Premier Brian Peckford’s government of the day (1986),
suggested that the province’s schools suffered from isolation because of their
particular denominational status in Newfoundland and Labrador. Barriers between
schools were said to diminish student success and the need for openness: the
quality of educational offerings was said to suffer. The fact that schools operated
independently from one religious base to another meant that the province had to
operate a larger number of schools than necessary and made “an ineffective use of
personnel available”. (Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association 1986,
19). The school systems divided children into four distinct religious groupings due
to the nature of the existing school board organization.
The NTLA spoke out against the high costs and the unwieldy nature of the
system in the province — Newfoundland and Labrador’s rapidly declining
population and rather shaky economy could ill afford to support four different
school systems. In February 1990, an NTLA-organized forum to discuss alternatives
to the existing system reiterated the need for a major reform. In the fall of 1990,
the government included an examination of educational structures as part of an
economic development review. The Williams Royal Commission examined the
state of programs and educational services offered at primary, elementary, and
secondary school levels in Newfoundland and Labrador. In order to affect school
reform, the government organized a referendum in the fall of 1995 to amend Term
17 of the Terms of Union of Newfoundland with Canada. The amendment
… was a major consolidation of existing school districts and all publicly funded
schools became ‘denominational schools’. Specifi cally, two types of schools
were established: schools operated for children of all denominations [called
interdenominational], and schools operated for children of a single denomination
[called unidenominational]. While there were positive expectations with regard
to this new system, unfortunately the new Term 17 and the system of education
which it established proved unworkable. (Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’
Association, 1997).
Although the population of Newfoundland and Labrador voted 55 per cent in favour
of the amendment, churches, in particular the Pentecostal and Roman Catholic
denominations, did not agree with government plans for reform (Newfoundland
and Labrador Teachers’ Association, 1997). School boards attempted to reorganize
by modifying structures, amalgamating, and closing schools, but the Pentecostal
and Roman Catholic churches sought and received an injunction from the Supreme
Court of Newfoundland and Labrador that prevented closure of Pentecostal and
Roman Catholic schools without church consent. The reorganization attempts had
negative consequences for certain teachers as well, as some positions were available
172 Section 4: The Atlantic Region