Back to school has officially begun, and with that comes a new social studies curriculum. The program is being piloted by teachers province-wide, including some in Rimbey.
Alberta Education announced moving forward with a revised curriculum across most subject areas, but paused the social studies curriculum as that was one that there was a lot of feedback about, along with some suggestions for revisions.
For the 2024/25 year, the social studies curriculum will be a draft, and an option for those who were interested in piloting the program for students in kindergarten through grade six.
"It's not required as of yet. It's going to be required but it's this year optional for schools to pilot the draft curriculum and in doing so you don't have to pilot the entire curriculum if you're going to designate your classroom as a pilot," said Superintendent of Wolf Creek Public Schools Tim De Ruyck.
He added that teachers would just need to do two or more sections of the new curriculum in the pilot.
The program features the study of history, geography, economics, civics, leadership, government and politics at age-appropriate levels.
"We have 16 teachers who have opted to pilot. We left it up to individual schools and individual teachers if they wanted to participate," said De Ruyck.
"We actually like to see our staff participate in the pilots because when you are part of a pilot for implementing a curriculum, then you also have the ability to offer further feedback before the curriculum becomes fully implemented."
For more information on the program, people can visit newlearnalberta.ca.
