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Education Minister Jody Carr says appointing Dennis Cochrane as president of Atlantic Education International for the next two years will help the company grow educational partnerships on the international stage.
Cochrane, a former educator, provincial Progressive Conservative leader and interim president at St. Thomas University, has already started the part-time position that pays $30,000 annually.
“There’s a lot of growth potential for AEI, but growth needs to be done strategically and with a co-ordinated approach,” Carr said in an email.
“Dennis Cochrane’s experience, knowledge and proven track record make him well suited to oversee the execution of AEI’s mandate and the development of a business and expansion strategy for international education in New Brunswick.”
In addition to the N.B. International Student Program and a teaching abroad initiative, Atlantic Education International oversees operations at the Confucius Institute in New Brunswick and maintains partnerships with schools in China that use New Brunswick curriculum.
The first partnership was put in place in 1998 under the Liberal government. Since then, five schools have started teaching New Brunswick curriculum, including one that opened in July with a capacity for 3,000 students.
But while department officials say Cochrane’s appointment will be good for Atlantic Education International, one man said he wonders what selling educational services to countries such as China means for the integrity of the New Brunswick curriculum.
Charles Burton, a professor at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ont., has had two postings in China as a diplomat.
In the past, Burton has spoken about the curriculum compromises made at the New Brunswick Confucius Institute, a program that teaches New Brunswick students the Chinese language and culture, but under the terms of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
He’s never taught at a school that buys New Brunswick curriculum, but Burton said the unified nature of Chinese education would mean even though Chinese students walk away with a New Brunswick diploma, that doesn’t mean they’re educated the same way as New Brunswick students.
“Anyone who has gone through the schools you’re talking about has to have had the Chinese curriculum, and that includes a few things like the politics and that interpretation of history that the Chinese government requires the children learn,” he said in an interview with The Daily Gleaner.
“There’s no question about it, it is a bit problematic that they’re not getting the same education as New Brunswick students get in New Brunswick because New Brunswick students in New Brunswick are not learning the things about how the Communist party saved China from Western colonialism and that kind of thing. And certainly free democracy is not going to be taught. The civics content is not going to be the same.
“There’s no way that they would allow that aspect of the curriculum to be dominant in the education of the Chinese children in China.”
Christina Windsor, communications director for the Department of Education, said students at the Concord colleges in China are required to take a number of courses in English, including social studies, as part of their New Brunswick diploma requirements.
But speaking on behalf of Atlantic Education International, Windsor said the goal of the courses is to focus on meeting New Brunswick curriculum outcomes – that means the student’s ability to learn what the course is designed to teach.
“Course content is a vehicle for reaching the curriculum outcomes, therefore many of the materials used can be adapted to suit the interests and needs of the students,” she said.
Windsor said in addition to receiving positive feedback from teachers and students who have participated in the China experience, the provincial government also made $3 million in revenue last year.
Upon returning from a trip to China in July, Carr said $3 million isn’t a lot of money but it’s some.
Carr said he expects to see more revenue from the partnership as a result of his visit, where he officially opened the fifth school and attended meetings about potential future partnerships.
“But (South Korea is) interested in having us partner with them in teacher training. Teacher training and culture experience. So they would like to send some of their teachers in South Korea to our schools here in New Brunswick.”
Carr said he also met with representatives from Cambodia who are interested in buying N.B. curriculum.
But while Burton sees benefits to the partnership, he questions leaving out the less favourable elements of Chinese history but still giving students a New Brunswick diploma.
“It does give students a New Brunswick diploma who are not getting the same education as in New Brunswick,” he said.
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