CLARK TO CHANGE CURRICULUM

Students in Grade 10 will soon be required to learn about the
consequences of alcohol and drug abuse in order to graduate.

"Every child everywhere in British Columbia who graduates from our
high schools will have to have a core understanding of the impact of
substance abuse," Education Minister Christy Clark said Thursday morning.

"And I think that's really timely, at this part of the year
especially, given that we've seen some tragic accidents, and kids are
out at grad parties and probably some of them experimenting with
substance abuse."

Clark revealed the planned curriculum change to a panel of education
reporters from Lower Mainland Publishing Group newspapers, which
includes the Burnaby NOW.

The information on substance abuse will be integrated into the new
'planning 10' course, which the provincial government recently
announced with other changes to graduation requirements as a
replacement for the 'career and personal planning (CAPP) 10' course.

"It will be a key component of (planning 10)," Clark said. "But the
important thing about it is, it will be consistent across the province
and it will be evidence-based.

Clark said she hopes the changes will be ready by this September, but
they might take until September 2004.

"Curriculum change takes a long time," she explained, adding, "It will
be a whole new curriculum."

Clark said current substance abuse education is "spotty" across
B.C.

"I think in some districts they do a lot of it, in some districts they
don't do very much of it," she said.

"There are so many different things happening out there that there
isn't really a guarantee about what's effective and what's not.

"So school districts can continue to offer supplementary programming,
if they'd like to do that. But we want to make sure that it is
embedded in the curriculum and that every child learns about it before
they get into a car and go to a grad party."

Clark noted the spate of recent fatal accidents involving young
people.

"I think we can do more as a society to make sure that kids have the
information that they need to perhaps make better decisions. This
won't be the cure-all - there's no question about that - but it's, I
think, part of the puzzle."