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On July 1, 2017 a new policy was created in the Ministry of Education on the subject of Learning Resources.
The timing for this new policy is one year following the change to the BC Human Rights Code.
The BC Human Rights Code was modified on July 25, 2016 by the addition of the words "sexual orientation and gender identity or expression". Our MLAs made this legislative change on a single day, putting it through the first reading, second reading and third reading stages in that one-day session.
The relevant section of the Code now reads, in condensed form, "A person must not ... discriminate against a person ... because of the Indigenous identity, race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or age of that person or class of persons."
During debate in the Legislative Assembly on this change Laurie Throness, MLA for Chilliwack and who abstained from the vote on this legislation, at the time said, "To sum up this point, I don’t really think this bill is about protection, because transgendered people have always been protected in the B.C. human rights code. This is not about protection as much as it is about the programs that will flow from this special recognition."
"This leads me to my main concern. I want to move on to talk for a moment about the content of the programs to come and how they might affect people, particularly children, youth and impressionable people."
The content of the programs turned out to be problematic. These foreseeable problems arguably prompted the administrators in the Ministry of Education to bring in the new Learning Resources policy the following year because it in turn delegated the responsibility under the School Act for approved lesson plans from them to school boards throughout the province.
I am reminded of Iron Law of Oligarchy created by Robert Michels. This states that in any organization the permanent officials will gradually obtain such influence that its day-to-day program will increasingly reflect their interests rather than its own stated philosophy.
Ministry of Education Learning Resources Policy in Full
The formal policy document may be seen here.
Boards of education have responsibility for determining how learning resources are chosen for use in schools. Boards must have policies and procedures for choosing learning resources. For curricula implemented from 2016 onwards, most educational program guides will not include a list of Ministry recommended resources. Boards may continue to use learning resources specified in educational program guides published before 2016, as appropriate. For certain courses or grades, the Ministry may still recommend the use of specific learning resources from time to time.
The Ministry of Education and Child Care no longer conducts evaluation processes to recommend learning resources. This responsibility now rests with boards. Board policies and procedures should include a process for ensuring the list of recommended learning resources is up to date and aligned with changes in curriculum. This would include adding and removing resources from the list.
Any concerns or challenges to the use of a learning resource should be dealt with at the district level. Boards/authorities should also develop policy and procedures to challenge the use of a learning resource.
Boards may choose to use the services of the Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium (ERAC) to assist them in choosing or approving learning resources. ERAC maintains a collection of evaluated K-12 resources for the B.C. school system.
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