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Revised (Nov 20 2008)
The Minister of Education
In the political and broad policy domain, BCSTA plays a key role in representing boards to the Minister of Education and senior government officials.
The minister is appointed by the premier of BC and is in charge of public and independent schools, public libraries, adult literacy and some early learning programs.
The minister’s powers and duties, under the School Act, include:
- advising on the provincial budget for education and allocating budgetary resources to boards of education
- determining general requirements for graduation
- determining the general nature of, and assessing the effectiveness of, educational programs
- preparing a process for measuring individual student performance, and
- approving educational resource materials in support of educational programs
The minister must report annually on the state of education and the effectiveness of educational programs in BC.
Ministry of Education core business areas:
- Public schools—The ministry provides operating funding to boards and others to support the public school system.
- Independent schools—The ministry provides operating funding to approximately 350 independent schools.
- Debt service and amortization—The ministry provides funding to public schools to finance capital projects.
- Early learning and literacy—The ministry provides government transfers to support the public library system and to support programs that promote literacy in communities and schools.
- Management services—This area provides administrative services to programs such as financial, budget, human resources, information management, administrative services and freedom of information and privacy services of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Advanced Education.
- Executive and support services—The ministry develops policy and legislation, oversees system governance, sets standards and accountability frameworks, monitors performance and reports results. Boards of education are a statutory creation of the School Act. While boards have a degree of local autonomy, they can be subject to intervention by the minister if the minister deems it to be in the public interest.
The provincial cabinet and treasury board assess funding requests from all ministries based on provincial government priorities. The Ministry of Education sets the level of funding for boards of education based on enrollment and other factors.
Curriculum and programs are defined by the Ministry of Education and supervised through requirements such as district achievement contracts, district reviews, audits and Foundation Skills Assessments.
In extreme cases, the minister can send in a special advisor to review and report on the work of the board and can ultimately appoint an official trustee to replace the board.
The deputy minister, the ministry’s senior administrative official, works closely with superintendents, secretary‑treasurers and boards. The deputy oversees and coordinates the implementation of government policy, curricular changes and relations with school districts. As the provincial government adjusts curriculum to changing social conditions, ministry staff can provide direction, guidance and support to school districts. Finance and facilities staff from the ministry also help districts budget for capital management and asset procurement. The accountability, monitoring and reporting functions of the ministry are generally parallel to board processes.
In recent years, the Ministry of Education has made tracking of achievement results a priority and works with boards to ensure that provincial priorities are reflected in school plans and school district achievement contracts.
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Other District Staff
