As students across the province return to school, NDP Education Critic Carla Beck called on Education Minister Gord Wyant to release the results of the government's education survey, rather than just a vague summary, and slammed the Sask. Party government for silencing the voices of teachers in their comments on what the survey found.

“If the responses to the government's survey look anything like the responses we received to our survey, there's no wonder the Education Minister wants to bury them. Our schools are in crisis. Forty percent of teachers have considered leaving the profession. Seventy percent of EAs witness or experience violence every week or every day. Everyone is raising the alarm. And the Sask. Party would prefer to sweep those concerns under the rug and pretend that everything’s fine."

Last week the NDP Opposition and Sask. Party government each announced the results of education surveys they had conducted. The NDP published a six-page report summarizing the findings, while the government release simply summarized the “top concerns” of students (“quality teachers and staff and a comfortable, quiet learning environment”) and “non-students” (“quality teachers, issues at home and access to supports, including educational assistants”), and attached a two-page demographic breakdown of respondents. 

"1400 teachers took the time to fill out the government survey, and they were simply lumped in as ‘non-students’?” said Beck. “The government release and attached report were completely silent about what those teachers had to say. Why? Again, and again, this government is letting teachers and students down.”

When the government announced the results of their trespassing survey in November, the government’s press release included a detailed statistical breakdown of responses and more than 88 pages of anonymized responses. Beck questioned why the same level of detail wasn’t provided this time.

"The government's survey has been closed since May 10,” Beck said. “Surely Ministry staff have conducted a detailed analysis of the results, yet the government has shared almost nothing about what they’re seeing.”