Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
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Education prescription misses the mark
He clearly insists that the essential purpose of our educational system is to funnel our young people to the right place in the marketplace so they might “get an economic foothold.” Ironic perhaps, when one considers that this country’s private sector spends 40 per cent less than all other developed countries in employee training. It appears that corporate tax cuts of almost 50 per cent over the last 30 years still do not allow for such inane responsibilities. Better to co-opt the publicly funded educational system, so that eventually no training costs need be incurred in the private sector.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, rights, standard of living, youth
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Universities are vital investments for all orders of government
… among the three orders of governments, the provinces have the most to gain from strong universities… The economy requires adults to be more than just full of information. It needs creative, innovative and imaginative thinkers… But… the benefit of universities goes well beyond a bright and curious work force. It plays the role of applied research, which holds the keys to economic diversification.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Needed: Smart education spending in Ontario
In total, public school enrolment in Ontario dropped from 2.16 million in 2001-02 to 2.04 million in 2011-12, a 5.5 per cent decrease. Spending on public schools in Ontario increased 62.4 per cent… on a per student basis… 72 per cent, from $7,047 to $12,117. Yet dramatic increases in spending aren’t necessarily associated with increases in achievement.
Tags: budget, ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living, youth
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Bringing higher education into the 21st century
Coates makes four principal recommendations: Cut university enrolment by 25 to 30 per cent… Rethink the funding formula for post-secondary education… Be more open-minded about blue-collar jobs, community colleges and polytechnics… Don’t sit on the sidelines waiting for the government to provide job-ready workers. “It is crucial that we change our assumptions about the role business can and should play in upgrading the skills of Canada’s workforce.”
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Private school students do fare better — but it’s mainly because of their parents: study
The roughly 6% of Canadian teenagers who attend private schools — from the grandest boarding school for the global elite to the most modest independent religious school — gain advantages that only increase as the students continue into higher and graduate education… parents of private school students had incomes 25% higher… 10% of public school students had a parent who completed a graduate or professional degree, compared with 25% of private school students.
Tags: ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax, youth
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Strikes reflect awkward realities of Ontario university finances
Real revenue per student has been going up… but costs have been going up faster than the CPI. Every year there is a gap between revenues and costs of about one to two per cent. So every year, some retiring full-time professors are not replaced and budget cuts must be made across all activities… Presidents, professors, and graduate students are well paid. Part-time instructors not so well. And it is they who must cobble together an annual living on course-by-course contracts…
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Who’s the customer in higher education? We all are
The internal debate between the unions and the university administrators is over how to divide the current pot… the TAs and contract profs versus managers, fancy facilities etc. But the public’s stake is rather different… as long as universities need those revenues, they’ll respond with short-term accommodations… universities will never be good job placement agencies. Those tasks belong to business and governments.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Why U of T, York strikes are more than labour disputes
Underpaid part-time staff teach a majority of undergraduates in Canada. For example, at U of T contract faculty and teaching assistants do 60 per cent of the teaching but make up 3.5 per cent of the budget… the number of contract faculty in Ontario increased 87 per cent in between 2000 and 2014… Paying the people who do the majority of teaching a salary that is above the poverty line won’t solve all the problems in academia, but it sure would be a good place to start.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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University labour strife underscores cost of tenured academics
… most universities have decided that, to staff their classrooms at reasonable cost, they must turn, in varying degrees, to contract instructors and teaching-track faculty… An explosion in undergraduate enrolments across Canada – 400,000 more students from 2002 to 2012 – has come without a corresponding increase in tenure-track faculty. While the number of professors doubled between the 1980s and 2006, there was a decline of 10 per cent in tenure and tenure-track faculty.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Canada’s Forgotten Law on Free, Universal Higher Ed
n May 1976, Canada became a signatory to the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Among many other rights, by signing the Covenant, Canada endorsed Article 13, recognizing “the right of everyone to an education.” With clause 2(c), we agreed that “higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.” … instead of seeing progressive reductions in tuition and other post-secondary costs, we’ve seen them relentlessly rise for almost 40 years — as the result of deliberate government policy.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, youth
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