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“The whole idea of rolling these things back to a time when everyone learned these basic facts didn’t exist,” said Mr. Mason. Previous methods that have focused on memorization and rote performance are “strategies we know never worked,” and left some students struggling.

But Ms. Stokke complains that “there’s always this false dichotomy that gets set up where they say, ‘We want kids to learn with understanding and you want skills.’ Well, that’s ridiculous. They should have both. You don’t start neglecting one side of it in favour of the other.”

Alberta has had a key hand in developing WNCP and uses it as a framework for its own curriculum. Christine Henzel, director of mathematics, arts and communication for Alberta’s education department, and who has worked on the development of WNCP in the past, said she could not speak to whether Manitoba’s changes signify a rejection of any aspect of WNCP, but said it is expected that all provinces using it will adapt it to their local needs.

WNCP is based on research, she said, and is aimed at providing students with real world math skills so that they understand how and when to apply the math facts they know.

“If we focus on memorization, we’re not going to get there,” she said.

Another question arises, if the WNCP is so bad, how come Alberta, which uses it, remains a Canadian leader when it comes to international testing?

Ms. Stokke and, her fellow U of W professor, Mr. Craigen argue that in fact even Alberta and other provinces such as British Columbia have seen their math achievement drop in outside assessments since WNCP came on the scene.