Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
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It still comes down to fixing the reserves
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Mar. 14, 2012
Systems and structures are fine and necessary, as is proper funding. But… results from formal education have more to do with parental attitudes, cultural assumptions about the importance of education and community norms than anything else. Which means that aboriginal education can’t be divorced from its core contextual problem – the reserves themselves that the panel correctly notes display socio-economic and health inequities, poverty, suicides, youth incarceration and abuse, high teen pregnancy rates, lower life expectancy and chronic disease.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System, Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Pass the Books. Hold the Oil.
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
March 10, 2012
To be sure, there is a role for stimulus in a prolonged recession, but “the only sustainable way is to grow our way out by giving more people the knowledge and skills to compete, collaborate and connect in a way that drives our countries forward,” argues Schleicher… “knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st-century economies, but there is no central bank that prints this currency. Everyone has to decide on their own how much they will print.”
Tags: economy, globalization, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Fraser report raises questions on provincewide testing
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
March 04, 2012
Fraser’s report card ranked elementary schools on the basis of how well students performed on annual standardized reading, writing and math tests. Critics of Fraser’s rankings see them as a “narrow” snapshot of a school’s performance… Thomas argues that “hardships” outside of a school — such as poverty or a community with a large number of single parents — are not necessarily determinants of academic failure or success.
Tags: ideology
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Putting the ‘system’ in education for on-reserve students
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Feb. 27, 2012
… reserve schools have two major tasks – to teach traditional culture and the core competencies of reading, writing, science and mathematics necessary for success in the mainstream economy. With honourable exceptions, on-reserve schools are failing at both tasks… “The education ‘system’ for first nations students on reserve is a far cry from any system that other Canadians would recognize in terms of … degree of input, accountability, and democratic governance most Canadians take for granted.”
Tags: budget, Indigenous, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Drummond promises less money, reduced flexibility for cash-strapped Ontario universities
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Feb 23 2012
Even with tuition increasing at around 5 per cent a year, universities are faced each year with a 2-3 per cent gap between expenditures and revenues. Most universities have attempted to close this gap by cutting budgets and taking in more students, resulting in larger class sizes and increasing reliance on part-time faculty… The danger is that the government will see the report as justifying a simple cost-cutting exercise, which will only exacerbate the universities’ unsustainable fiscal position without giving them the tools they need to attempt to deal with the challenges they face.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
OCUFA analysis of the Drummond Report: all cuts, no substance
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Feb. 23, 2012
On the commission’s own assumptions and proposals – 1.7 per cent annual enrolment growth, 1.9 per cent annual inflation, and 1.5 per cent annual increases in post-secondary funding – per student funding will decline by 12 per cent between now and 2017-18… inflation-adjusted provincial funding per college student could fall by $790, and per undergraduate student could decline by almost $940. For graduate students, the reduction could be $2,280.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario universities should offer three-year degrees, classes year-round and more online learning, says provincial report
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Feb 22 2012
The report — tentatively entitled 3 Cubed: PSE institutions as centres of creativity, competency and citizenship equipped for the 21st century — says post-secondary education needs to be relevant and flexible given the increased demand for college and university. The proposals would get students through university or college cheaper and faster — the report says college diplomas should be two years at most — while still offering a quality post-secondary education… The report says pilot programs for the new three-year degrees should begin in September 2013, with rollout by 2015.
Tags: budget, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | 1 Comment »
OCUFA to Drummond: You can’t drive Ontario forward on a half-empty tank
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Feb. 16, 2012
Drummond’s chief recommendation is that government funding of universities and colleges be limited to 1.5 per cent per year… this is an effective cut to higher education funding that does not keep pace with enrolment or inflation. Ontario’s universities already receive 25 per cent less per-student funding than they did in 1990; Drummond’s recommendations will make this under-funding even worse.
Tags: budget, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Drummond Report: School boards fear loss of independence
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Feb. 16, 2012
School boards say Don Drummond’s recommendations, if implemented, would not only affect the quality of education but also further erode their independence… “I don’t think any minister sitting at Queen’s Park can begin to have the knowledge that we have here of our facilities, our schools”… [But} boosting class sizes slightly, as Drummond recommended, the Toronto board alone could save $40 million to $50 million.
Tags: budget, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Larger classrooms among sweeping changes suggested to education
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Feb.15, 2012
The economist advising Queen’s Park on how to wipe out the deficit suggests sweeping changes to the sector on which Premier Dalton McGuinty has staked his reputation, arguing the province has hiked per-pupil spending by 56 per cent in the past 10 years, while enrolment has plunged… He also suggests post-secondary spending grow by no more than 1.5 per cent until 2017.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, tax, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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