National Features

Toronto: Conférence sur l'enseignement post-secondaire au Canada dans les années 1980

La conférence qui s'est déroulée à Toronto du 19 au 22 octobre à Toronto rassemblait pour la premiere fois les ministres de l'Éducation des 10 provinces (et des deux Territoires). Cette conférence faisait suite à celle qui s'était tenue à Paris en septembre 1981, sous l'égide de l'Organisation pour la coopération et le développement économiques. Elle se proposait quatre grands thémes: évolution du secteur post-secondaire au Canada, grandes questions auxquelles ce secteur doit faire face; comment traiter de ces questions dans le contexte socio-économique des années 80; et enfin, double probléme de l'accès à l'enseignement supérieur et des rapports entre cet enseignement et la vie active.

TORONTO: POST-SECONDARY
EDUCATION FOR THE '80'S
by Susan McCrae Vander Voet

The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada

From October 19th - 22nd, Lenore Rogers and I attended a national conference sponsored by the Council of Ministers of Education. Following is a report on the conference and our presentation to it. Background information on the Council and the origins of the conference is presented first to provide a context.

In September 1967, the provincial ministers established the Council of Ministers of Education as a formal organization with clearly defined purposes. It is composed of the ministers responsible for education in each province. (Since 1980, the ministers in the two northern territories have been participant-observers). The Council structure allows ministers to consult regularly on education issues of pan-Canadian interest. Committees and work groups of provincial officials are struck to exchange data and information, or carry out cooperative projects, in a number of areas at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. Over the years the Council has been particularly active in curriculum, educational media, education statistics and finance, international education matters, and as the focus for provincial-federal consultation on education-related matters.

The Conference

Canadian delegates to a conference on Higher Education in Paris in October, 1981, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, strongly recommended that a similar conference be held in Canada for Canadians.

The Council therefore set up a planning and organizing committee of provincial officials along with an advisory group made up of representatives of educational organizations. (CCLOW was not included). They were given the following conference objectives:

1. to review recent trends in the development
   of post-secondary education;
   
   
2. to discuss major issues confronting
   post-secondary education;
   
   
3. to consider ways and approaches by
   which these issues can be addressed in
   the social and economic context of the 1980's.
   
   
4. to concentrate deliberations
   on the themes:
   
   - access to post-secondary education
   
   - changing relationships between post-secondary education and working life
   
   - patterns of governance
   
   - financing and redeployment of resources

A broad spectrum of people involved in the post-secondary system attended the conference. Representatives from government, universities, colleges, faculties, educational, associations, and students participated in active discussion on major themes.