Education needs business involvement, says consultant

Paul Bennett, director of Halifax-based Schoolhouse Consulting, an education researcher, adjunct professor of Education at Saint Mary's University and frequent media commentator, spoke to the 121st annual meeting of the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce in Summerside Tuesday. Bennett's talk was more than an hour long and multifaceted, touching on a range of topics related to education, but the main thrust of his speech was business involvement in education. His talk was titled "Reinventing Our School System: Why a Business Voice is Critical to Improving Public Education."

Bennett encouraged the business leaders to become more invested in the early education process, because it will be harder to fill that critical position several years down the road if the overall quality of local graduates is not high. He pointed to a number of indicators showing worrying trends in the reading, writing and basic math skills of high school and even post-secondary graduates from Atlantic Canadian institutions.

"We need a business voice and an engaged business community, with an interest in improving the school system," said Bennett.

"Being on advisory committees isn't enough. You have to invest time and energy into understanding education to be effective in advocating educational change. You can easily be co-opted on advisory committees and you have to dig in and be working to see the change from the school level up."

Bennett is in favour of an educational governance body rooted from the ground up with school governing councils that work in conjunction with regional educational councils, on which business and employer representatives would serve. Such representation would help everyone understand what kind of skills the workforce is demanding and give the business community a voice in decisions that ultimately impact their viability as employers.

"When you're deciding to close say a school ... I think business should have a say in that. I really don't think it's fair for school authorities to say 'we're making the decision; like it or lump it,'" he said.

Valerie Roy, chief executive officer of the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, said that education is increasingly becoming a subject of concern for members of her organization.

Other subjects discussed at the two-day meetings included the increasing cost of healthcare and various internal matters, such as the swearing in of retired Nova Scotia businessman Richie Mann, as the organization's new chairman.

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