Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Government pulls out of language training

The federal government is getting out of the business of providing language training to its employees, throwing 179 teachers and instructors across Canada out of work.

The move - which started with downsizing in the 1990s, and intensified after a 2006 Treasury Board decision - marks the first time in decades that the government won't be directly offering French and English training to public servants to meet the language requirements of their jobs.

The Canada School of the Public Service, which runs language training, notified employees about the cut in a national conference call Friday, along with plans to help departments manage the transition to using private language schools. Most of the jobs are in the National Capital Region, but the majority were term positions. About 66 of the positions were permanent jobs and those workers may find jobs in other departments.

Larry Rousseau, vicepresident for the National Capital Region at the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the government decision to turn all teaching to the private sector will invariably erode the quality of instruction and undermine the strides made in bilingualism within the public service.

"This was purely an ideological cut," he said. "It shouldn't have happened and the only reason I can find is that the government has made a decision that this will play well in the heartland and show we are getting out of the business of making people bilingual."

The government has been slowly pulling out of language training in recent years and turning it over to the private sector. The government used to have hundreds of teachers during the heyday of language training in the 1970s and early 1980s when bilingualism became law and the public service was growing. Today, most of the training is done by private language schools, universities and colleges.

The number of language teachers was significantly reduced during the Liberal government's major downsizing in the mid 1990s. This final wind-down came after Treasury Board decided in 2006 that the Canada School needed to rethink its role and get out of language training.

Officials at Canada School of the Public Service issued a notice within the public service that called the move "finalizing the implementation of the 2006 Treasury Board decision in the school's language training role."

Until now, departments have had the option of using private schools or the Canada School of the Public Service, which charged fees, to train their workers. The federal school will continue to set standards, develop new learning methods, screen and pre-qualify private schools to ensure they are up to snuff and will continue to offer its highly popular online courses and tools that are used by thousands of public servants.

The school has been consulting with departments to gauge the demand for training and will be working with the government's procurement arm, Public Works and Government Services Canada, to help departments buy the training they need.

Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser has been keeping an eye on the impact of the wind-down of the school's language training. Officials said Friday's decision is simply the culmination of a five-year trend of departments shifting more training to the private sector.
The commission's main concern is to ensure the Official Languages Act is upheld so Canadians can be served in their language of choice and public servants can work in theirs. As long as these goals are met, the commission isn't concerned whether the training is in-house or contracted to the private sector.

Fraser, however, is conducting a report that he hopes to complete this year on how departments are managing language training.

"From our point of view, the important thing is that departments keep providing public servants with enough and quality training - whether it comes from the Canada School or private sector," said commission spokesman Robin Cantin.

The government began providing language instruction after 1970's Official Languages Act gave Canadians the right to service in their preferred language. The demand for training further picked up in 1988 when the act gave public servants the right to work in their language of choice.

Original Article
Source: Ottawa Citizen 

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