MRU education students accredited to teach

It’s official: students of Mount Royal University’s bachelor of education — elementary degree will graduate as certified teachers under the Teaching Quality Standard set by the Government of Alberta.

On Jan. 23, the education minister, Thomas Lukaszuk, and Mount Royal’s Provost Robin Fisher signed a memorandum of agreement confirming that the quality of education future teachers are receiving at MRU lives up to the high provincial standards.

Lukaszuk said obtaining the certification is not easy.

MRU Provost Robin Fisher, left, and Alberta Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, right, signed the memorandum of agreement on Jan. 23. Photo: Bryan Weismiller

“Mount Royal has a distinguished history of academic excellence,” Lukaszuk said. “It’s been around since 1910, so this university obviously had a leg up.”

During his speech, Lukaszuk emphasized that Alberta is recognized worldwide for having an exceptionally good public education system.

In order to get the certification, MRU had to undergo an “onerous process,” which examines hiring and teaching practices and ensures that Mount Royal students “are in no way inferior,” Lukaszuk said. It is the ninth institution in Alberta to become accredited.

Irene Naested, chair of the department of education and schooling, helped develop the program over the past 20 years and said the certification is much-needed.

“The students want to stay here. They want to get the degree here, and now they’re able,” Naested said.

A second-year education student, Neepin Auger, said she’s glad she’ll be able to stay at MRU rather than going to the University of Lethbridge or the University of Alberta.

Auger wants to use her teaching skills to help Calgary’s First Nations population, and said MRU supports her goals and ideas.

“I want to use art as a medium of getting points across,” Auger said. “The teachers here allow me to do that in my own way.”