Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
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Ontario schools need accountability, not seniority
A 2012 survey… found that 37 per cent of new teachers were completely unemployed, not able to find even a single day of supply teaching work. And only 14 per cent were able to secure a regular full-time teaching job… while seniority-based policies make unions happy, they are not in the best interests of students. Telling principals they can only hire teachers with the most seniority discriminates against younger teachers… It also undermines efforts to ensure we have the best teachers possible.
Tags: budget, rights, standard of living, youth
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Ontario moves to halve number of teachers-college grads
The length of teachers college will double from one year to two, with an increase in the amount of time teachers-in-training spend on classroom instruction. The government will keep the number of college spaces at 9,000, but, with the extra year, each cohort will contain only 4,500. Sources with knowledge of the government’s plan said Queen’s Park is tailoring the training system to the realities of the job market.
Tags: economy, standard of living
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Falling enrolment = close surplus schools. Right? Wrong!
One solution would be to seek partnerships with other education institutions, social service agencies, and community groups to establish multi-usage of school facilities and cost-sharing. Keep small neighbourhood schools open by sharing building space with others. Make more effective use of technology to provide enriched curriculum in smaller schools… “Smaller schools are generally better for… student outcomes and most organizational outcomes as well.”
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Ryerson allows aboriginal students to learn their own way
At a time when 95 per cent of aboriginal young people don’t go to university — and many of those who start fall away — the program Ryerson and FNTI have developed is worth heeding. It offers the youth of First Nations — the fastest-growing segment of Canada’s population — an opportunity to learn the skills they need without sacrificing their identity… There are no lecture halls, no passive listening and no jockeying for dominance. “We are all teachers and learners… We all bring our knowledge to the sharing circle.”
Tags: Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation
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Canada’s universities have been doing more with less… but can they keep doing so?
In Ontario alone, 44 new programs were introduced in 2012 — just at the master’s and PhD levels. These programs are in emerging areas such as health science policy, non-profit leadership, community relations in extractive industries, palliative nursing, health industry management and design engineering… But by 2010, university attainment rates… put Canada 15th among OECD countries. Our competitive advantage is eroding because we are not ensuring the financial sustainability of universities so that they can continue growing at global rates.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
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Aboriginal education vexes Canada (and Paul Martin)
Ottawa compares what it pays for each reserve student with provincial averages and denies that a problem exists. Mr. Martin insists that the comparison should be made with per capita funding for remote and rural schools, which always require more money than urban ones. Factor in geography, to say nothing of the specific additional challenges of educating young people on reserves, and Mr. Martin believes the gap is $2,000 to $3,000 per student.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, youth
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Public investment in Ontario universities continues to decline
Overall funding for universities, correcting for inflation, is set to decline by 2.5 per cent over the next four years. If current enrolment trends continue, per-student funding from the government will actually decline by seven per cent over the same period… this means that universities in Ontario will be forced to grapple with steadily declining resources, and corresponding threats to educational quality and affordability… the government’s current course is harmful to students, to families, and the province.
Tags: budget, economy, standard of living, youth
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Tories gear up for (historical) war
In the 1990s, a war raged. Known as the “history wars,” scholars argued over appropriate subject matter and methods for understanding the past. In Canada, one side of this debate believed that the past should focus on politics, economics and the military; the other side felt that the past was broader. Looking more at society and culture, they argued for a more nuanced understanding that included the contributions of women, immigrants, indigenous peoples and workers.
Tags: budget, ideology, immigration, Indigenous, jurisdiction, women
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Ontario’s funding for universities continues to slide
University funding as a percentage of GDP still lags well behind the rest of Canada, despite the government’s supposed interest in innovation… 2010-11 is the latest period in which we can compare Ontario with other provinces. That year Ontario government operating support to universities –as a proportion of provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – was about 15 per cent below the average in the rest of Canada.
Tags: budget, economy, standard of living, youth
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Several factors padding our high employment rate
Employment stats don’t reflect the more grim reality of the market. Too many new jobs are junk jobs. Temp jobs. Minimum wage jobs. Jobs with no security. In 2012, 182,000 people between the ages of 16 and 24 couldn’t find work at all and one-quarter of all university graduates couldn’t find work in their field… We are learning that the more we cut from a budget, the greater our economic plight becomes. In other words, the cuts have the opposite effect than what they may have been designed to address
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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