Mixed Reactions to the Government's Plan for Education in Ontario

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed    Dr. Carl James, Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at York University in Toronto, Canada

The Ontario government’s plans for education and the postsecondary sector outlined in its 2019 budget have evoked mixed reactions from educators, school board representatives and other stakeholders.

The government says it is strengthening Ontario’s education curriculum, with particular emphasis on math and science, as well as job skills such as skilled trades and coding, and life skills such as financial literacy. 

It says it agrees with its sector partners that it is important to protect class sizes in the early grades so it plans to keep hard class size caps in place from kindergarten to Grade 3. 

For older students, the government proposes to require all school boards to maintain an average class size of 24.5 in Grades 4 to 8, representing an average increase of one student per class. For the oldest students in Grades 9 to 12, the government’s plan would require school boards to maintain average class sizes of 28. 

This, it says, aligns with the class size requirements in other Canadian provinces while also helping prepare older students for classroom environments in postsecondary institutions. 

However, Dr. Carl James, a professor in the Faculty of Education and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at York University, says while the literature does not say that there is an ultimate class size, it does say that there is a relationship sometimes between success rate of students or achievement of students or students engagement in class and class size.

“From my perspective, each teaching-learning process depends on the relationship between the teacher and student. A bigger class doesn’t facilitate that kind of relationship or that growing relationship so it might be different for a class of students where the teacher is from the community, like in rural communities, compared to a class of students in downtown Toronto where the teacher drives in from suburbs. That’s different.”

Professor James said in southern Ontario where there are many immigrant students there are lots of diversity in the classes and class size is critical because teachers have to get to know the diversity and to respond to all these different diversities.

He notes that the class size for a diverse group of students is going to be different from a very homogenous group of students.

Kirk Moss, a teacher at Central Etobicoke High School, says the increased class size means the government is putting more responsibilities on teachers and paying less attention to students.

“This is basically crippling the educational experience for students in two ways. One, what the government is indirectly saying to students is we do not have the resources to educate you properly. And number two, we do not have the foresight to recognize how the workload of your teacher being increased will then affect their ability to teach you more effectively.”

Moss said the government is neglecting the ability of the students to learn in a smaller class environment, and that they are saying to teachers that their workload is “of no consideration to us.”

Starting in 2020-21, the government will centralize the delivery of all e-learning courses to allow students greater access to programming and educational opportunities, no matter where they live in Ontario.

“Secondary students will take a minimum of four e-learning credits out of the 30 credits needed to fulfill the requirements for achieving an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. That is equivalent to one credit per year, with exemptions for some students on an individualized basis. These changes will be phased in, starting in 2020-21,” said the government.

But Professor James says this is going to disadvantage students who might not have access compared to those who have access to these facilities. 

He said when it comes to doing these online courses each relationship between a teacher and a student is significant. An online course is not facilitating that.

James said the class size for required courses might be bigger because every student has to do this course compared to an elective.

“Online courses will not facilitate the students building relationships with teachers and are not going to help students who might need absolute help in doing the work.”

Photo contributed     Kirk Moss, a teacher at Central Etobicoke High School, Toronto District School Board

Meanwhile, Moss says the requirement for students to attain four credits through mandatory e-learning programs and for a teacher to then have 35 students in those e-learning classes is asking a lot.

“What you’re telling students is the value of a teacher being their mentor, being there as a person that they engage with critically on a one-on-one basis and face-to-face basis -- what you’re saying is that experience is now not as valuable.”

Moss, who has been teaching for 10 years in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), believes the kind of face-to-face learning that students receive in the classroom is unmatched by any form of technology that can be used as a substitute for that process.

“There is no comparison at all. These are two very different forms of learning and one is far more effective, far more humanizing, and more impactful to our students than the latter.”

Moss thinks it is unfortunate that students will be forced to take online courses, when those courses were optional for a long time and were courses that students who are trying to get an extra credit or to finish school on a faster track would take.

Central Etobicoke High School is a dedicated site for mild intellectual disability (M.I.D) and autistic students. In his classroom all of the students are autistic or on the autistic spectrum and are categorized as developmentally delayed (D.D) students.

Moss says it was very heartbreaking that these students were the first ones to be casualties of the government’s cuts.

He said these students are one of the most underserved in the education system and for them to not have the kinds of supports that they need in order to succeed was devastating.

In March, Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP education critic, said that Premier Doug Ford had put families on notice that deep cuts were coming to their children’s education — cuts that Stiles said should be stopped before they hurt children.

The Ford government sent a memo to school boards, dated Feb. 28, telling them not to fill vacancies until getting budget news. That equates to an immediate cut, as teachers retire and take sick or parental leave; and it also signals that deep cuts are coming in the spring, she said.

“Cuts to teachers and staff in education means larger class sizes as the Conservatives cram more kids into classrooms with fewer teachers. It means children won't be able to get one-on-one help when they need it. And it means already-stressed teachers will have to do even more with even less,” said Stiles.

The news came amid calls from school boards for more resources to support an anticipated influx of students with autism in classrooms following cuts to autism services.

Regarding comments that the Ford government made in the lead-up to the budget that students will now be able to go to university and they will be trained to be in university big classes, Dr. James said universities are not necessarily saying that “because we’re concerned at the university that students are not coming in to be able to do well and so therefore that should be a concern.”

The government also says it plans to work with its education partners to improve teacher mobility while increasing transparency, fairness, consistency and accountability in teacher hiring across all school boards.

“Ontario’s students deserve the best teacher available in each and every classroom, and principals should be empowered to hire teachers based on merit and fit for role,” it says.

It is reviewing existing regulations “to provide increased mobility for teachers in Ontario, ensure that teaching positions are filled by the right candidate, simplify the hiring process to reduce turnover in the classroom, reduce bias in hiring by addressing conflict of interest, and ensure equity and diversity in hiring practices.”

Professor James said principals will say sometimes that some of the teachers that they would like to get out of the classroom they cannot do so because of seniority, etc., and Premier Doug Ford is signaling that as a factor.

“However, while we would not want just simply because you’re senior therefore that’s why you’re getting the job and that’s why some racialized teachers and black teachers, in particular, might not have been able to get the job, it’s not really providing some of the necessary incentives for teachers or for the school boards, etc., in order to do some of the work that needs to be done to get the kinds of teachers we want standing in front of the classes.”

Recently, James received the Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence from the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators (ONABSE) at its awards dinner in Toronto. 

He said there is a need for black teachers because research shows that black students having black teachers are more likely to graduate and more likely to go to university. 

However, he noted that the community needs to pay attention to the whole process of black individuals being in the pipeline but also “when we’re talking about pipeline we’re not talking about simply graduating from teachers college, we’re talking about even graduating from high school to get to university to become teachers.”

He said even though racialized and black teachers are in the pipeline it is important for the community to make sure that they have the necessary kinds of support and skills to get there.

On the matter of the government’s plan to fund universities based on metrics, James said one of the metrics is going to be how soon after graduation the students get jobs. 

The professor is concerned about this because if students are attending university because they want to be job-ready the kinds of theoretical thinking and conceptualization are going to be discouraged because students will be focusing on business.

Meanwhile, Kathy McDonald, Peel District School Board (PDSB) trustee, said the recent lay-off notices that the board issued to more than 360 teachers now deemed as surplus -- as a result of government cuts -- will not negatively affect the board’s recent decision to intentionally hire Black and Indigenous teachers.

“It will not affect that particular program because that program is going to be hiring teachers that will get on the occasional teachers list. We’re always in need of teachers for the occasional teachers list so this initiative is actually giving them a conduit into the board because that’s the first stage of getting a permanent teaching position.”

She said the people who have become surplus were people that had permanent positions in the board and now the PDSB is saying it does not have those positions anymore.

McDonald received the Champion Educator Award of Excellence at the same ONABSE event where James was honoured.

[This story was published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, May 2-8, 2019.]