N.B. news: Government promises changes to classrooms [Video]

As part of its promise to improve the Anglophone education system, the New Brunswick government launched a report Tuesday outlining how it’s going to get there.

The report stems from a steering committee sparked by consultations in the winter of 2022-23 when the province attempted to change the system’s French immersion program.

That plan was scrapped, but the committee made short-term and long-term recommendations with a goal of finally addressing longstanding issues. On Tuesday, the committee co-chairs and Education Minister Bill Hogan released their roadmap on how to complete those long-term recommendations.

The first addresses chronic absenteeism. According to the department, in the 2022-2023 school year, a little more than 37 per cent of students grades K-5 were considered chronically absent.

That number was more than 45 per cent in middle and high schools.

Ardith Shirley, co-chair of the committee and executive director of the N.B. Teachers’ Association, says New Brunswick has, historically, seen a slightly …