Who is to blame for the education crisis?

By Lethbridge Herald on November 25, 2025.

Editor,

The Alberta teacher strike spiraled into a disaster for all parties concerned, except for the provincial UCP government. As expected, their irresponsibility only exacerbated the mess. They are deliberately obtuse.

Prior to the strike, teachers and their students had to bear the brunt of the classroom situation by working under horrible conditions. The teachers then held a strike without pay, which is an immense strain for anyone to endure, and are now working again under horrible conditions. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The strike also held particular significance for parents, who found themselves in the unfortunate position of needing to explain to their children why school was no longer an option, while simultaneously trying to bridge that gap.

We must acknowledge the teachers who are taking on the responsibility of educating society’s youth. They not only put forth remarkable effort and make sacrifices, but they also endure the criticism aimed at the education system.

What goes unnoticed is the hierarchy of distributing  resources and the decisions that influence public education. Teachers are the frontline workers in this mission, yet they become the targets of criticism from those who are willfully uninformed of the realities of the classroom.

To genuinely grasp where the problems lie, one must recognize the numerous individuals in leadership positions who are accountable for the challenges, not the teachers, who are left to navigate the difficulties spawned by the UCP’s inflated sense of self-importance, along with school divisions and individual school administrative teams and how their decisions affect teachers’ working conditions, compelling teachers to accomplish more with less.

Why is there a lack of resources? One might scrutinize upper administration and question how effectively they support the schools under their jurisdiction. Are resources being distributed in a genuinely effective manner?

Another fallacy that is often unjustly attributed to teachers by those who opt to remain uninformed is the idea of the so-called “days off” throughout the academic year. The summer break should not be regarded as time off per se, considering the extensive hours teachers commit from August to June. Instead, the summer hiatus merely functions to equilibrate the total hours dedicated to the teaching vocation.

Days for Professional Development are instituted by administrative bodies, both at elevated tiers and within the educational institutions themselves. Educators are simply anticipated to adhere to the mandates to participate and engage in these sessions as prescribed by those in authority over them.

When evaluating the current state of public education in Alberta, and employing a military framework for analogy, one ought to ponder: when a battle is lost, do we attribute the failure to the foot soldiers, or do we hold the generals accountable for their tactical choices?

Clearly, it is the generals who bear the responsibility.

Brock Slawtling

Pincher Creek