Manitoba Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen is not happy with international test results posted this week showing students in our province are last in Canada in math and science scores and second-last in reading. The Programme for International Student Assessment reports the scores are based on tests written by 3,000, 15-year-old students in our province two years ago. Goertzen says that is a letdown.

"We're disappointed to see that when it comes to these core subjects, that we want to see students performing well in, that they aren't performing as well compared to students in other provinces in Canada."

Goertzen notes these test scores started sliding about ten years ago and that is why he launched the K-12 Education Review Commission earlier this year.

'Their mandate, specifically, was to come up with ideas and suggestions about how we can improve, particularly in math, science and reading."

Goertzen says prior to Manitoba's test scores beginning their demise ten years ago, Manitoba was usually in the middle of the pack among Canadian provinces as far as the test scores of students. He is now looking forward to getting the commission's report next March and to making improvements to the education system as soon as possible.

"When the commission reports, which should be in about March of next year, I imagine they are going to have, as most reports do, short-term initiatives and longer-term initiatives. Hopefully, we can get moving fairly quickly on those short-term initiatives. Now, of course, there are many students, for example, those who wrote this exam two years ago at the age of 15, they've been in the public school system for about ten years, so it does take time for results to change. But, there's no time like the present to start."

Goertzen says the commission's findings will include input from over 15,000 residents, so it will be very comprehensive in its scope.