The announcement was made last week naming 30 students representing student voice across Manitoba on the provincial Student Advisory Council (SAC), who will have the ear of the education minister this year.
Eight students from last year will continue to serve on the newly formed council derived from the Manitoba's K to 12 Education Action Plan taken from the Commission on K-12 Education in Manitoba, when town hall meetings were held across the province to get a comprehensive look at ways to improve student learning.
Carnelley said he applied to be on the SAC in Spring explaining why he wanted to be selected.
"Within my school, I'm involved in many different clubs such as Robotics, Student Council, Youth in Philanthropy, Envirothon. I really wanted to be a part of this Council because of my wide variety of people I meet within my school and that I can connect with. I'm also involved in sports like hockey, volleyball, badminton and I truly have a connection to a wide range of the student body at my school. I thought being a part of the Student Council, I could bring those diverse opinions to the table."
He was happy to hear the news, he had been chosen to be part of SAC.
He remarked he was probably selected because of his connection to a wide range of students in his school, but that wasn't the only reason.
"Especially because I'm from a rural community and I really wanted to have that opportunity to share the concerns that us rural students have. I believe that's definitely part of the reason why I was chosen was because this is a province-wide council. It's not just Winnipeg. It's not just the big cities so. In order to be able to truly hear from the students of the province, I think it's definitely important that rural students have a voice as well."
Carnelley already has exercised his voice at the first meeting of the new council with the Minister and Deputy Minister of Education at a meeting with them and the outgoing council to share the work this new council will build on.
He brought up the topic of limited programming in rural schools, citing his inability to learn computer programming without paying for an online course, something he has heard from other students as a roadblock in their learning.
"It totally holds us back because, the way I see it is, high school is a time to be able to explore your interests and decide what you want to do in post-secondary and that sort of thing. But if you don't have these opportunities, you can't be exposed to it. It really has an effect on what we want to do in the future, because how do we know if we'd like something, or if we're good at it, if we never get the chance to do it in the first place?"
While he spoke at the meeting, he listened too, adding, although this issue doesn't apply to him personally, he found it quite interesting.
"There was talk about the dropout rate in Manitoba and how we can address that, or just improving the level of education in Manitoba, and how many students are being successful. There was talk about Manitoba being rated very low in English and Math, standardized testing and Indigenous dropout rates, and issues like that, that are really eye opening. It was very interesting to see the Minister acknowledge it, and he was talking with us about ways to improve that and make it less of a problem."
Carnelley is pleased with the value the Minister of Education Wayne Ewasko places on student voice and feels hopeful about making a difference in the coming year.
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