"This can't be done by government alone; anything that's done, any structure that's created has to be involving social partners, civil society and educators," Cappon insisted.

"It has to be supported by people like yourselves from the field who understand in your various domains what really happens and what could happen."

'A push for conservative modernization': Steeves

Many will mourn the loss of the CCL, but not everyone agrees with their final proposals. As part of a panel discussion that took place after Cappon's presentation, Peter Grimmett, head of curriculum and pedagogy in the faculty of education at UBC, laid out his concerns about the plan's reliance on national and international testing for students, and their effects on teachers.

"The heavy emphasis on the auditing of learning has been found in many studies to be a very strong contributor to the many difficulties that people have in their career prospects," he said.

"My point is that the factors that damage the career prospects for teachers arise in many instances from the audit culture that is currently invading our countries."

Similarly, Grimmett argued emphasis should be put on studying instead of learning. Studying "builds our capacity for making choices, for developing focus, for exercising critical judgment, and is so central to a well formed character."

Tobey Steeves, a graduate student at the Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiries in Education, pointed out the similarities between the push for education "modernization" with those of the neo-liberal and neo-conservative movements.

"I'm reminded of Michael Apple who described kind of what I'm hearing here is a push for conservative modernization, and he linked it with neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, neo-managerialism and authoritarian populism, and I see this as a very quintessential example of that push towards conservative modernization," he said.

Rob Cliff, a doctoral candidate in education studies, was more alarmed about the involvement of government in the goal-making process. He argued this had failed before in so many other sectors, as government's only interest has been cutting the costs of service delivery.

"What we need to start with is critically looking at what's happening in the policy realm now and having an honest discussion about that. The government's not interested in that," he said.

"So if you're asking to get more of the same, which is what I hear -- I'm hearing a call for more of the same at the national level, aggregating at the international level -- count me out."

From plan to action

In an interview after the presentation, Cappon says he wasn't shocked by any of the criticisms, saying many of them were just misunderstandings.

"Whenever you do a summary of a situation, there will be lots of nuances that are not brought up," he explained. He emphasizes the importance of assessment for data collection, but says it should never take precedence over learning in the classroom. Nor should government be left alone to make education decisions.

The Tyee contacted the federal Department of Human Resources, Skills and Development, but did not receive a call back by press time.

Cappon says the federal government was given an early copy of the report, and is scheduled to present to government bureaucrats soon. He isn't holding his breath for any public comment, however.

"Because as far as they're concerned they made the decision to cease the funding of CCL, so it doesn't exist," he says.

A call to the provincial Ministry of Education resulted in an email response lauding B.C.'s education plan: the introduction of all-day kindergarten, higher academic standards, personalized learning, flexibility and choice, and better teaching and learning.

Cappon acknowledges B.C.'s academic strengths, but says it's less likely now that B.C. students will remain in one province to get their education, and high standards need to apply across the board.

But despite the criticisms he received at UBC, Cappon says the majority of people he's spoken to thus far like the report, and he needs their support more than the federal government's.

"I think our recommendations will be considered and followed insofar as Canadians decide that this is really important in their lives: it means something to their families, to their communities, their regions and their province. But politicians are people from the community, so they will act if they are encouraged to act by their constituents," he said.

"That's the way democratic life works."

[Tags: Education, Politics]