Guidance for Holocaust education in school curriculum promised for next school year: province

New curriculum guidance on Holocaust education for kindergarten to Grade 11 students will be rolled out during the next school year, following up on the premier's pledge to make learning about the atrocities of World War II mandatory in the province.

The province has hired dedicated staff and is partnering with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada to develop that guidance, a news release said Monday.

The kindergarten to Grade 11 mandatory social studies curriculum will be renewed in the 2024-25 school year and focus on increasing students' understanding of how contemporary antisemitism, racism and inequality issues are entrenched in history, according to the release.

The release said implementation of tools, supports and resources will also be introduced in the 2024-25 school year.

"The Jewish community has been asking for mandated Holocaust education for more than half a century," said Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada.

British Columbia and Ontario have previously announced Holocaust education will be mandatory for Grade 10 students starting in fall 2025, while Alberta and Saskatchewan announced in the fall that studying the Holocaust will be a compulsory part of new social studies curriculums.

The announcement was made on Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day something Jarniewski said was very significant and moving.

Jarniewski also said having mandatory Holocaust education is important, especially with a rise in antisemitism since the start of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

"We need to start while we have our young people in school and teach them about this tragic event that wasn't only a tragedy for the Jewish community worldwide, but also for all of humanity," she said.

"It really was a failure for humanity," she said.

Jewish Federation CEO Jeff Lieberman said in Monday's new release Holocaust education in Manitoba will empower young people in the province to "stand up against antisemitism and hatred in all its forms."

Human Rights education bus begins tour in Winnipeg

A human rights education bus is also touring through Winnipeg this week and made a stop at Shaftesbury High School Monday.

Students in Winnipeg will participate in the Tour for Humanity's The Holocaust: Then and Now, Global Perspectives and The Canadian Experience workshops, aiming to teach them about the Holocaust, other genocides and crimes against humanity and Canada's human rights history.

Over the past ten years, the large blue bus has traveled to over one thousand schools across Canada. The current tour will go on for a handful of weeks across the country.

The bus has 30 seats inside and students get to experience an interactive multimedia presentation about the Holocaust, or other human rights themes.

"History, it can sometimes become more like a story than reality for people that haven't lived through those times," said Elena Kingsbury, a senior educator with Tour for Humanity.

"I think humanizing the history and helping re-direct that interest to understand theexperience of victims or lesser understood aspects of the Holocaust, that's really what I enjoy doing."

"We're seeing that studentsare very interested and engaged on these topics, but definitely they need some guidance."