Premier David Eby announced Oct. 30 his government’s commitment to make Holocaust education mandatory for high school students in B.C. public schools.
But he’s 20 years behind Central Okanagan Public Schools, which supported the creation of a Holocaust course for Grade 12 students back in 2003.
École Kelowna Secondary teacher Graeme Stacey initially developed the course, and subsequently spent part of last summer working with fellow teacher Mike Woltuizen rewriting the Holocaust 12 course to help deepen the understanding of Jewish people both before and after the Holocaust era from the 1930s through the Second World War in Germany.
Jason Hudson, a teacher at Mount Boucherie Secondary, also worked on the initial Holocaust 12 course content.
The new course touted by Eby will be part of the Grade 10 social studies curriculum, to ensure when students are learning about discriminatory policies and injustices in Canada and around the world, all students in B.C. will also learn about the Holocaust.
The new social studies Holocaust element will be incorporated into classroom teaching in the 2025-26 school year to allow for further consultation and development input from the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, the Jewish community and education partners.
Besides the Holocaust, the social studies Grade 10 curriculum will include topics such as the destruction of Hogan’s Alley, Japanese internment and discrimination against culturally diverse groups such as Muslim, East-Asian, Black and South-Asian communities.
Eby talked about the frightening consequences of an upswing in Anti-semitic discrimination, which has emerged in the aftermath of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses and at protest demonstrations across North America.
“Combatting this kind of hate begins with learning from the darkest parts of our history, so the same horrors are not repeated. That’s why we are working with the Jewish community to make sure learning about the Holocaust becomes a requirement for all high school students,” Eby said.
