V.

Education and Cultural Life

A.

Education

The first public schools in Newfoundland and Labrador were organized by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. In 1949 several religious denominations gained the constitutional right to operate primary and secondary public schools in the province under the Terms of Union by which Newfoundland and Labrador joined the Canadian federation. Under this denominational system of education, schools were designated as Integrated (Anglican, Presbyterian, Salvation Army, or United Church), Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, or Seventh-day Adventist. The provincial government was legally required to provide each of these denominations with financial support for the construction and operation of schools. In 1997 a majority of provincial voters backed a referendum to amend the Terms of Union to end centuries of church domination of the educational system and to allow for the establishment of interdenominational schools. Following approval of the referendum, the provincial government passed the 1997 Schools Act, which created ten interdenominational school boards, based on geographic districts, and one Francophone board for the province’s six French first-language schools. These school boards are fully funded by the provincial government, staffed with trustees elected in popular elections, and responsible for administering the schools in their districts. Education is free and compulsory from the age of 6 to 15.

In addition to the public primary and secondary schools, there are seven private schools; a school for First Nations children, located on the coast of southern Newfoundland; and the Newfoundland School for the Deaf, in St. John’s.

A.1.

Higher Education

Memorial University of Newfoundland, founded in 1925 as Memorial University College, is the only university in the province and the largest university in Canada’s Atlantic region. It consists of a main campus in St. John’s; the Marine Institute, also in St. John’s; Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook; an affiliated campus in Harlow, England; and the Institut Frecker in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a dependency of France. Newfoundland and Labrador is also home to a provincial system of regional colleges of technology, applied arts, and continuing education. In 1996 these regional colleges, formerly five in number, were merged into the new 18-campus College of the North Atlantic, which is governed under a single board.

B.

Libraries and Museums

The public libraries board, an independent board established by the provincial government in 1935, is responsible for public library services throughout the province. It administers more than 90 public libraries throughout the province, including three public libraries in St. John’s.

The Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador, headquartered in St. John’s and with branches in Grand Falls-Windsor and Grand Bank, has a collection exceeding one million artifacts. The museum contains provincial historical materials, a natural history collection, and a rich archaeological collection, which includes relics of the indigenous Beothuk people—inhabitants of the island of Newfoundland who were encountered by European explorers in the 16th century. The Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador (AGNL) in St. John’s is the largest public art gallery in the province. The primary focus of the gallery, which is owned by Memorial University of Newfoundland, is on contemporary Canadian art. There are many local museums, such as the Conception Bay Museum in Harbour Grace, the South Newfoundland Seaman’s Museum in Grand Bank, and the Labrador Straits Museum in L’Anse au Loup.

C.

Communications

The first newspaper to be published in the province was the Royal Gazette, which was founded in 1806. It still appears as a government gazette. The largest daily is the St. John’s Telegram, founded as the Evening Telegram in 1879 and renamed in 1998. The other major daily is the Western Star of Corner Brook. There are also several weekly newspapers and periodical journals. The province is served by 21 AM and 18 FM radio stations and 4 television stations.

D.

Arts

One of the province’s earliest writers was William Charles Saint John, who gained fame as a journalist and a historian. His son, Charles Henry Saint John, is recognized as the province’s first native-born poet. Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, who was sent out in 1892 from London to organize schools and medical missions, gave the world its first reports of the little-known wilds of Labrador. The province’s most accomplished writers of the 20th century included E. J. Pratt, acclaimed by many as Canada’s greatest poet; Michael F. Harrington, short-story writer, radio commentator, and newspaper editor; and the novelists Harold Horwood and Margaret Duley. The journalist Ray Guy, known for his biting satire and political commentary, is one of the province’s best-known contemporary writers.