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Eddie Joyce, MHA for the District of Bay of Islands, says he is very
disappointed that government cutbacks are now affecting core services in
schools such as librarians. Joyce says Sacred Heart Elementary in Curling is
one example of a school experiencing the negative impact of government
cutbacks. The school was just forced to send out a letter asking parents to
volunteer their time in running the library. "It is unacceptable that
government is cutting funding and services to the point where a school can
no longer offer librarian services to the students of our province," said
Mr. Joyce. "We have witnessed teacher cuts and secretarial hour cutbacks
that are now having a negative impact in other areas of the school
curriculum. Asking parents to volunteer their time to run a library is not a
solution to this problem.
"The library at Sacred Heart school has not been open to students this
year as funding has not allocated to hire a librarian. Libraries are
valuable information centres that allow students to find information on
various subjects and encourages them to take a more active interest in
reading books. Eliminating this service is eliminating a valuable part of
our children’s education.
"I am asking Minister Hedderson to re-examine the direction his
government is taking with regards to education in this province. Cutbacks to
the budgets of the school boards are now trickling down to affect other
necessary services. I am certain there are other schools in the province
facing the same predicament and I hope parents will raise these concerns
publicly.
"This government makes plenty of public relations announcements trying to
convince people they are doing things to improve the education system.
However, until government stops the cutbacks to teaching positions,
secretarial hours and the school board budgets, more services will be
reduced or eliminated. I also suspect that while government keeps appointing
their friends to key positions on the school boards, these boards will
remain silent on these issues. This is unfortunate when the role of the
school board is to act in the best interests of the students they represent,
not their political friends in government."
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