Dufrost student lands seat on Manitoba Education Council

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This article was published 17/02/2023 (839 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 16-year-old student who is passionate about equity in French immersion education has been accepted onto a new provincial advisory committee.

Brianne Judson, a Grade 11 student at Roseau Valley School in Dominion City, is one of two students on the 34-seat Manitoba Education Council.

That’s on top of her ongoing work with another provincial committee, the Student Advisory Council, and her role on RVS student council.

“My Grade 11 year’s going to be pretty busy, and then I guess we’ll see how Grade 12 goes,” Judson said in interview.

The Manitoba Education Council, which was announced last week, is chaired by the deputy minister of education, Dana Rudy, and advises the government on issues in K-12 education.

Parents, superintendents, Metis and Indigenous leaders, education associations, post-secondary and early childhood educators, and experts in mental health and social services were also appointed to the Council, which met for the first time last week.

“I just hope that it can help improve education and make more people want to be at school,” Judson said.

She is one of only two students on the Council, and the only one representing rural and francophone peers. She said she was a little surprised there weren’t more students appointed to the Council.

“Maybe they would benefit from more students,” she said, “but I think it’s nice to at least have students on it, and I’m really glad that there’s finally a way for students to voice their opinions.”

According to the province’s website, the Council is to “discuss and plan for issues facing children and youth, families, teachers, school staff and early childhood educators.” That includes grades and achievement, the overall well-being of students, and outside partnerships that would benefit the K-12 education system.

Judson isn’t daunted by the broad mandate.

“I’m actually glad it’s so broad, because then it doesn’t necessarily limit you to problems that occur within a school,” she said. “I’m really glad that it does include daycares and what happens outside of school, because I’ve seen how people struggle because of their circumstances at home.”

Judson said her interest in politics and government came from watching CNN every morning with her mom, a schoolteacher. During a Student Advisory Council meeting, she learned about the opportunity to join the Manitoba Education Council and decided to apply.

“I put my name forward as someone who lives in a French community and who is French,” she said. “A few months later, I got the notice that I was accepted.”

Judson lives near Dufrost, southwest of St Pierre. Her family speaks French at home, but French-language instruction is limited at RVS, so Judson takes some courses through InformNet, an online distance learning resource for Manitoba high school students.

Judson’s path through the education system has given her a multifaceted perspective. She attended a French immersion school from kindergarten through Grade 5, followed by two years of homeschooling. Returning to public school in Grade 8, she had to choose between an English or French immersion school.

“I picked an English school only because there were more optional courses,” she said. “Ever since then I’ve kind of wanted to improve issues that I’ve seen in education, a lot of it with access to French programming.”

Judson said French immersion students deserve equal access to all the optional courses that English students are offered.

Judson also got a sense of Indigenous education while volunteering at Ginew School in nearby Roseau River First Nation.

Education Minister Wayne Ewasko said the Council will be guided by the K-12 Education Action Plan, which was created 10 months ago in response to recommendations from the Manitoba Commission on K-12 Education.

“The commission was clear that the recommendations in its report could only be accomplished if all education partners work together,” Ewasko said in a release. “There were calls for a strong intersectoral approach as well as a forum to facilitate provincial planning and implementation.”

Ewasko also said the Council will also discuss broader issues affecting education. For Judson, that includes student mental health in the wake of COVID-19.

“If you’re coming to school every day and you’re facing a problem mentally…it’s going to affect how you learn,” she said.