Education Minister Eggen issues an apology for offensive quiz question

by Morinville News Staff

David Eggen, Alberta’s Minister of Education, issued an apology and had his Deputy Minister on the phone with school boards throughout the province on Thursday after complaints about offensive test questions in St. Paul.

The Toronto Store reported that the St. Paul Alternate Education Centre is St. Paul gave students a multiple choice questionnaire that asked students to select “a positive effect of residential schools. ”

The questionnaire, approved by approved by the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC), gave four choices: Children were away from home. Children learned to read. Children were taught manners. Children became civilized.

“I was appalled to see such hurtful and offensive material given to an Alberta student,” Eggen said in a statement Thursday. “As Minister of Education, I want to sincerely apologize to this student, their family, and anyone else who may have been exposed to this insensitive resource. There is no excuse for it – and there is no place for it in our schools.

“The legacy of residential schools is a dark period in our history, and we must journey together toward reconciliation. It is vital that this take place in a way that honours and brings awareness to the experiences of residential school survivors.

Eggen has instructed Alberta Education to conduct a review of Alberta Distance Learning Centre materials to make sure it and similar material is not used again.

The Deputy Minister of Education was scheduled to contact every school authority in the province to ask them to take proactive steps to prevent students from being exposed to such material.

“I will also be personally reaching out to the student who was subjected to this hateful material to apologize and issue an invitation to a curriculum roundtable on Indigenous education that I am hosting next week,” Eggen said.

“As the Minister of Education, I believe this unfortunate situation highlights just how important the work we’re doing to update the K-12 curriculum is. Some of the material still in our classrooms today was written as far back as the 1990s, when the last residential schools were still in operation. Every student in Alberta should be learning about the profound damage and harm that was done to generations of First Nations, Metis and Inuit children who were forced to attend residential schools – full stop.

“We will remove this hateful material from our schools and we owe it to our children to give them the education they need to succeed in their futures.”

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15 Comments

  1. I hope this isn’t a weird reaction, I do want say that the question is abhorrent, but I’m also curious as to what was the correct answer according to the curriculum? Any thoughts?

  2. Jesus aged Christ. They might have well asked what was a positive outcome of hitlers reign, or genocide or the bomb on Japan. It’s as close to our hearts as saying “what was a positive outcome of your relative dying from cancer?” Think about that education minister!

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