Good morning everyone. I am pleased to welcome you all here today to participate in this important day for the future of education in Nova Scotia.

We have representatives here from the broad range of education stakeholders and partners – from School Advisory Council members, to teachers, administrators, board members, education department officials and business leaders.

I invited you each here today, because of your interest in public education, your experience and your expertise. I am a firm believer in the power of many minds focused on a shared goal – leading us forward together further and faster than if any of us were to work alone.

Deputy Minister Dennis Cochrane is going to speak to you in a moment about the format of today's event. Education Minister Karen Casey will chair a panel session that I believe you will find wide-ranging and intriguing. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Doug Willms will present us with a snapshot of how Nova Scotia students compare to the rest of the country and the world.

I want to spend a few minutes now talking about the challenges and opportunities that face us. Never before have the demands on our education system been so high or the opportunities for students so great. We live in a world where the most valuable skill is knowledge.

Today's students must prepare for a world where they compete and collaborate with people from around the world as never before. The convergence of information technology, globalization and demographic change has made the beginning of the 21st century a pivotal moment in our history – one of unparalleled opportunity and challenge.

Education has the potential to enhance all aspects of our society. Social welfare, justice, health and economic prosperity all benefit from our ability to provide our youngest citizens with the best possible start in life. That's why education is the top priority of almost every country in the world.

The success of our province and the well-being of its citizens depend on our ability as a society to adapt and thrive in a climate of constant change.

We must create and support a culture of achievement and lifelong learning that starts -- but doesn't end -- with the first 13 years of a child's formal education.

It is our responsibility to design, build and renew our education system on a continuous basis. When the only constant is change, we can never afford the luxury of standing still and saying our job is done.

Here is just one example of what I mean. M.I.T. has something called OpenCourseWare. It makes all of the world-famous university's undergraduate programs available on the web, free of charge. Kids with computers in Beijing or Bangalore or Bedford can learn when they want and where they want.

The message for us is very clear: we can be on the right track but if we stand still, we will be run over by better prepared students from around the world.

Eight years ago, our government set out to rebuild the foundation of an education system that had eroded over time. We called that plan Learning for Life.

Three years ago, a meeting of education partners much like this resulted in a four-year plan focused on ensuring that students of all needs and abilities benefited from reduced class sizes, increased professional support services, enhanced resources, clearly defined standards and an emphasis on healthy, active living. We call that plan Learning for Life II.

Since 2004 our government has increased spending on our P-12 system by 153 million dollars, or over 17 percent – much of it focused on the implementation of Learning for Life II.

A fundamental precept of Learning for Life has been accountability. What is measured is acted upon. This principle is well recognized. So, in our world of education, we can't assess our performance unless we can measure it; and we can't improve our performance unless we know how and where it falls short.

As such, we have implemented a system of comprehensive province-wide testing in key areas such as math and literacy at different stages of a child's education. And while we are working on refining and enhancing that system of evaluation, we have accumulated enough data to know that we still have lots of work to do.

The standards of achievement being attained are just not good enough for too many of our students. Not good enough for them to achieve their full potential in life; and not good enough to propel us to the positions of prosperity and growth to which we aspire.

A new report from the McKinsey Group in the United States may help direct us to some of the answers. The report looks at the most successful countries in the world in terms of student achievement and what it is that they do differently.

They analyzed international assessments and undertook one-on-one interviews with educational experts, practitioners and policy makers from around the globe. And in doing so, they discovered three common denominators in systems that improved faster and performed better -- regardless of their cultural or social context -- and regardless of how much additional money was invested.

First, those systems focused on getting the right people to become school teachers; second, they did the right things to develop those people into effective instructors; and third, they put systems and targeted support in place to ensure every child was able to benefit from that excellent instruction.

In other words, the quality of an education system depends on the quality of its teachers, this study says: the only way to improve student outcomes is to improve instruction.

Our commitment to significantly increasing the number of high schools in Nova Scotia offering the International Baccalaureate program is an example of that new way of thinking. As an option for academically ambitious students in grades 11 and 12, it presents an opportunity to achieve an international standard of excellence while studying a curriculum emphasizing critical thought and encouraging a global perspective.

Nova Scotia has made an unprecedented commitment to the I-B program, with 12 certified I-B World schools operating now and more on the way. Our goal is to have the program accessible by 90% of Nova Scotia high school students.

Our province is not without its challenges: our population, especially in rural areas is declining and aging. And as demands on our provincial resources grow, the costs of building and maintaining infrastructure in our over 400 schools are increasingly difficult to bear.

So there it is in a nutshell, the challenge we face: how do we make the kinds of improvements in achievement we need without ignoring the very real need for us to live within our means?

I don't want to presume anything about the answers you will come up with today, but I want to encourage you to think big thoughts and consider innovative solutions. Incremental changes alone will not be enough.

Just as the benefits and shortcomings of our system of public education are felt throughout society, we all have a role to play in both charting the course of the voyage ahead of us and working together to move us forward. Parents, teachers, governments, communities and businesses – none of us can be successful without the support of each other.

I believe that William Butler Yeats said it best: "Education is not filling a bucket, it is lighting a fire."

I look forward to getting together again at the end of the day to see how far we've come towards lighting that fire of passion for learning in our students.

Thank you.