亲爱的家长们，

今年即将结束，我想分享一些关于过去一年的想法和反思，并分享一些关于新一年将给我们带来的观点。但在我开始之前，我想向我们学校和总部的所有优秀员工表示最诚挚的感谢和感激。他们所做的工作不会被忽视，而在我们在圣诞节假期休息和放松的同时，我想要说声谢谢。感谢我们的家长、老师、校长、教育助理、管理员、院长以及所有员工，感谢你们每一天所付出的努力，以确保我们的学生继续接受世界一流的教育。作为两个正在上学的孩子的父亲，我一直对他们所接受的教学质量、关怀和关注印象深刻。

2023年对我们的教育体系进行了一些重大的新投资。2023年预算中包括今年对我们学校董事会整体资金的增加5.2%。其中包括了为了应对人数增长而在三年内拨出的8.2亿美元。此外，2023年开始了新的课堂复杂度赠款，拨款1.26亿美元，用于支持额外招聘3,000名教育助理、言语病理师、心理学家和其他员工，以确保我们的学生得到他们需要的支持。我们已经看到了显著的成果，就在这个学年中，我们的四个大都会学区招聘了超过1200名新老师和超过450名新的教育助理。2023年预算还批准了全省各个阶段的58个学校项目。

我们也在继续进行阿尔伯塔省课程的更新工作。2023年9月，学校董事会开始全面实施新的幼儿园至三年级的科学、法语第一语言和法语沉浸课程。九月还看到所有幼儿园至六年级学生学习新的英语和数学课程。我们还在继续努力制定新的社会学课程。近13,000名阿尔伯塔人完成了在线调查，分享了他们认为我们的社会学课程应该包含的内容，我们还在与老师、学科专家、课程开发专家、第一民族领导人和多元文化群体进行交流。

新的学年开始时，我们的学校董事会明显看到了创纪录的入学人数。阿尔伯塔的人口再次激增！从2022年4月1日到2023年4月1日，我们的人口增加了20万。自1914年以来，我们看到了最大规模的人口激增。为了应对入学人数的激增，我宣布额外拨出3,000万美元的资金，帮助我们最受影响的学校董事会。

年底的消息令人振奋，宣布了2022年国际学生评估项目（PISA）的结果。阿尔伯塔的学生在阅读方面排名加拿大第一，在科学方面排名加拿大第一，在数学方面排名加拿大第二。此外，我们的学生在与国际竞争者的比较中表现出色。在全球范围内，我们在阅读方面排名第二，在科学方面排名第二，在数学方面排名第七。我们应该赞扬我们的家长、教育工作者和学生。

展望2024年，我计划向阿尔伯塔人民提供新社会学课程的最新进展，并对我们改进学校职业教育计划的计划提供更多细节，显著扩大我们不断增长的社区学校的数量，探索吸引和留住教师和其他员工的激励措施，并加强我们课程中的生活技能和金融知识教育。

最后，我想要认识到家庭中所付出的辛勤工作。父母和监护人在我们的教育体系中发挥着至关重要的作用，不管是帮助孩子做作业和学校任务，还是在活动中做义工，或参与家长学校委员会。

我祝愿你们度过一个愉快的假期，2024年的开始将会很美好。

诚挚问候，
迪米特里欧斯·尼古拉迪斯 ECA博士
教育部长

Dear parents,

The year is coming to an end, and I’d like to share a few thoughts and reflections about the year past, and as well, share some views about what the new year will bring us.

Before I do though, I want to extend my utmost gratitude and appreciation to all the amazing staff in our schools and head offices. The work that they do does not go unnoticed, and as we take some time to rest and relax over the Christmas break, I want to say thank you. To our parents, teachers, principals, educational assistants, custodians, superintendents, and all staff, thank you for the work that you do, every single day, to ensure our students continue to receive a world-class education. As a father of two school-aged children, I’ve always been impressed by the quality of instruction, care, and attention they have received.

2023 saw some significant new investments into our education system. Budget 2023 included a 5.2 per cent increase in overall funding to our school boards this year. This includes $820 million over three years to fund enrolment growth. In addition, 2023 saw the start of the new Classroom Complexity Grant, with $126 million over three years to support the hiring of up to 3,000 more educational assistants, speech language pathologists, psychologists, and other staff to ensure our students have the support they need. We are already seeing strong results as this school year alone, our four metro school divisions hired over 1,200 new teachers and over 450 new educational assistants. Budget 2023 also approved 58 school projects, at various stages, across the province.

We’ve also continued work in renewing Alberta’s curriculum. In September 2023, school boards began implementing the new Kindergarten to Grade 3 curriculum in Science, French First Language and French Immersion. September also saw all Kindergarten to Grade 6 students learning the new English and Math curriculums. We are also continuing our work to develop a new Social Studies curriculum. Almost 13,000 Albertans completed the online survey to share their views about what our Social Studies curriculum should include, and we are continuing to engage with teachers, subject matter experts, curriculum development specialists, First Nations leaders and multicultural groups.

As the new school year got underway, it was clear that our school boards were seeing record enrolment levels. Alberta’s population is booming again! From April 1, 2022, to April 1, 2023, our population grew by 200,000. We are seeing the largest population boom since 1914. To help address this spike in enrolment, I announced an in-year funding boost of $30 million to help our hardest hit school boards.

The year is closing on a high note, with announcement of the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results. Alberta students scored first in Canada in reading, first in Canada in science and second in Canada in math. In addition, our students scored exceptionally well against international competitors. Globally we ranked second in reading, second in science and seventh in math. Our parents, educators and students deserve our praise.

As we look ahead to 2024, I plan to provide Albertans with an update on the new Social Studies curriculum, as well as more details on our plans to improve career education programming in our schools, significantly expand the number of schools in our growing communities, explore incentives to support the recruitment and retention of teachers and other staff, and strengthen life skills and financial literacy in our curriculum.

In closing, I want to recognize the hard work that goes on at home. Parents and guardians play a critical role in our education system, whether it’s helping with homework and school assignments, volunteering at events, or participating on parent school councils.

I wish you all a restful holiday break, and a fantastic start to 2024.

Best,

Demetrios Nicolaides ECA PhD
Minister of Education