Seine .

a SE A REE ee

tions.

teaching act = |.
remains obscure |

TERRACE ‘— School.
District 88 Trustee Edna

Cooper described the new ..

Teaching Profession “Act

as‘‘‘a door that teachers.
have to walk through.

without- knowing what's
on the other side’’,

~ by Michael Kelly

parents and administra-

tors as well as teachers -.
-apparently unknown and
unknowable at this point,
but teachers were able to-
‘make a few informed

guesses at a sparsely

attended public forum

held recently in Terrace.:
Predictions included de-

’ terioration “of teacher

morale, higher stress levels

“among a profession that’s

already in the top five

most stressful occupa- the consequences of Bill

20 in the relationship-bet-

tions, a reduced involve-

ment in extra-curricular -

activities, a less creative
and imaginative approach
in the classroom, and add-
ed difficulty for boards in
recruiting teachers.

Bill 20, the. Teaching
Profession Act, comes in
two parts. One part estab-
lishes a new professional

_organization, The College
- of Teachers, and the other »

lays down the rules for
collective bargaining . bet-

‘ween teachers and school —
_ boards,

The: college will incor-
porate the professional
development and regula-
tory functions formerly
invested in the B.C, Teac-

hers’ Federation (BCTF)

plus the licensing authori-

‘ty.now performed by the
- Ministry’s certification

board, The . governing

body of the College will be.
a twenty-member council:

consisting of 15 elected

_ tepresentatives for tea-
 chers, a ratio of about one
 for- every 2,000 public

school teachers i in the pro-

‘vince, and five members -

appointed by the govern-
ment. The College will be

excluded ‘from © involve-.
ment in collective bargain- .
ing, 4 function that is left:

to local teacher associa-

There are many profes-

sions in B.C. ‘that ‘have

separate professional or-

. ganizations and unions,

examples being foresters,
engineers and nurses.
What sets. the College

apart. is the requirement .

that all its bylaws and

regulations 1 need approval |

‘by cabinet, a requirement
that teachers say amounts

_ to total government con-

trol over the profession.
Greg Houlden, a teach-
er at Skeena Junior Sec-

ondary School, said that ~
while govenrment controls

are spelled out in detail,
the professional: develop-
ment and certification

functions of the College -

a

undefined.

remain almost ‘totally
In reviewing
the terms of the act, Houl-

‘den observed, ‘“There are

‘a lot of powers written i in-
to this bill that weren’t in-. °

* tended to: be there. It’s
” frightening.”

‘Other provisions | in the
bill give the Ministry of

’ Education powers.to pre-
‘What's on the other side. P Pp

+ for students, trustees,

scribe what. curriculum.
will be taught, how it will
be taught,

used to teach it. One-tea-

-cher at the forum pre-
dicted a standstill in the-

development -of new ‘tea-.
ching approaches. . .
Despite years of ex-
perience in negotiating
and bargaining for tea-
chers,-. Terrace District.
Teachers’ Association pre-
sident John Eades seemed
nearly at a loss to forecast

ween boards and teachers.
“‘There’s so much here
you nearly have to be a

-legal‘expert to interpret it.
It’s difficult to even
‘ mount any sort of oppo-

sition to the bill because

nobody really knows what_

it means,’’ he said.

Eades pointed-out with
regret that some. provi-
sions of the bill could wipe

_ out the hard-won fruits of .

years .of bargaining, in-

: cluding ‘personnel prac-

tices guidelines, regulation
of class sizes and other

-working conditions, and .

even.seniority. Eades also
based the conclusions ona
portion of the new labor
law proposed by the gov-
ernment which will amend

Section 65 of the Labour
‘ Code, an amendment that

stipulates collective agree-

ments cannot “in any way’

limit the exercise by any
person of a power, auth-

ority or discretion that is
conferred by an Act’’.

When feferring to a school |
. board, -

that provision
could be interpreted to ex-

tions...

Eades said the present
contract talks between the

TDTA and School District

88 .are being conducted
with the. ‘awareness that

whole sections of a nego-
tiated agreement could be

statutorily struck down by
passage of both bills. “We.
just have to take one thing

at a time,’’ he said.
The continued existence

of the B.C. Teachers’ Fed- |
eration (BCTF) is also in

obscurity, partly because

it no longer has a statutory

function and partly be-

cause it will require finan-

cial’ support from teach-
ers. Another unknown in

the ‘equation is the ‘fee.

structure of the College of

Teachers, the operations
‘of which will be paid for
~ by teachers at a rate deter-

Aa.

é

.addition -any: -local - tea-
“chers’ “organization that
-opts to form.a bargaining

- putting the BCTF in the
"position. of being. a. third-

.tionable how many pro--
fessional. organizations ©

; support.

-and  what::

course materials will be through all legislative pro-.

cedures and now requires
‘Governor's signature, The

_ collective bargaining pro-
‘visions of the Act are.ex-.

-and the: College of Tea- .
-chers will come into exist-. §
“ence. in January 1988.

out .of- the process. of

‘sponsibility to enact the

el, ‘It's frustrating,” she @

‘referred to a portion of J

‘in the Act, has nothing to

cally. reduce the already
precarious. autonomy. of .

_ing- a grant, subsidy or

clude a staggering amount -Mment ‘shall comply with

of territory from negotia- -sury Board limiting or reg-

' ly be interpreted to mean
- ‘the Ministry of Education,

.Of locally elected officials.

a catagories when :they ar-

mined by whatever budget’

the College establishes. In 9 . ‘OUTSTANDING : ae

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tier body. It is ques-

teachers will be able to .

‘Bill 20 has passed

only - the . Lieutenant-

pected to be proclaimed as
Jaw. during this summer,

“We're in no man’s
land now,”’ Eades remark- -
ed.. |

* TRUSTEES
~ FRUSTRATED

_ After the forum Trustee ff
Edna Cooper indicated -
board members feel left

evolving the new statutes -

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said, ° :
‘Cooper reacted with

surprise during the forum
when one of the teachers

the: Industrial - Relations
Reform Act amending
Section 24 of the Financial |
Administration. Act. The:
amendment is remarkable
in that it’s starkly unre-
lated to any other.material .

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local school boards.

The amendment - speci-
fies that any person, body
-or corporate entity receiv-

-payment from the govern-
the directions of the Trea-

ulating, as:‘to. manner or §
mount or in any other -
way, application of the
grant, subsidy or pay- -
ment’’,

That section could easi-

through. the Treasury I
Board, :could designate a
specific use for every
dollar -distributed to
school boards through the
‘funding formula, effec-
tively destroying the dis-
cretionary. spending power

. Cooper remarked that
boards have little say in
how the money is spent
even under the current
system, with funds being
earmarked for general.

Skeena Mall
Terrace

635-4948

Rupert Square
Prince Rupert

624-4236

311 City Centre
Kitimat
632-5000

rive from Victoria. “The
continued on page 5

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