Classroom Lessons

The question must be asked: what does Justin Trudeau know about education? In the sense of the country as a whole addressing itself to its academic needs for the youth of tomorrow. In the interests of securing for Canada a highly-motivated and -educated workforce, capable of meeting the employment and economic challenges of the future head-on.

Well, in that regard it could be said that Justin Trudeau has enjoyed a formal education. One of little distinction and short duration. And this, perhaps, informs his view of the current education system. He has also taught for a stint at a private school in British Columbia. He was a drama teacher, and no doubt very good at what he taught. We still see vestiges of his thespian side even now.

Justin Trudeau has lately been responding to those of his critics who complain that he has no agenda, has said nothing of any real import on any particular issue, often raises objections to government programs, but has little to offer in the way of solutions. He has determined that it is time he put all the critics' uninformed comments about him and his potential as a future prime minister of Canada at rest.

And, it seems to the casual but interested observer, that Justin Trudeau, newly anointed to the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, is beginning to believe his own growing legend as an extraordinary speaker and emerging intelligence. Exemplified in his seeming to speak off the cuff, in a kind of veneer of issues that must sound good to him as panaceas for whatever ail this country, but don't appear to those in the know to promise anything of value.

According to the Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the University of Saskatchewan Ken Coates, and Bill Morrison, Professor Emeritus in History at the University of Northern British Columbia, co-authors of Campus Confidential: "Mr. Trudeau is, of course, new to his job. He, however, is the one who claimed that his approach to PSE demonstrated that he was ready with innovative and effective policies for Canada. His very thin gruel on the expansion of post-secondary opportunities, sadly, suggests otherwise. Let's hope the new Liberal leader has given more thought to other aspects of the party platform."

The problem, as they see it, is Justin Trudeau's recommendations to raise post-secondary education (PSE) participation rates from 50% to 70% in Canada. Over the past 30 years there has been a virtual explosion of post-secondary graduate rates.  Yet, the two experienced, professional educators point out, Canada struggles with one of the highest rates of graduate underemployment in the world. With said graduates going out into the world saddled with student debt, facing high rates of unemployment.

Better, they feel, a general acknowledgement that university is not suited for everyone. Under-qualified and unmotivated students flood into universities because post-secondary education is thought to be the magic flying carpet to remunerative, satisfying employment. Even for uninspired students who will become uninspired workers. Their presence in universities, claim the two, downgrades the quality of education available to those who are capable of excelling in a chosen field.

Canada, they state, no longer enjoys a "knowledge economy", with education guaranteeing earning potential. Those who excel, in our new "specialist economy" are those with high-end marketable skills, connected to the specific marketplace they target. Generalists, they state, fare poorly in this new economic strategy. School-to-work strategy is an issue inadequately addressed, and one of the greatest challenges facing new graduates.

Those are the issues of today, affecting the issues of tomorrow that should be focused on, not the easy pickings of recommending more university spaces for people who don't really make good academic material.