The provincial government’s decision last week to scrap the teacher testing program introduced by the Conservatives three years ago is being met with applause here.
“The cancellation of the teacher re-certification program was a very positive move,” said Sharon Preston, president of the local chapter of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.
Education minister Gerard Kennedy made the formal announcement last Thursday after the legislature voted to repeal what was called the Professional Learning Program.
“This means the requirement to take prescribed courses to maintain your certification with the Ontario College of Teachers is now eliminated,” the minister wrote in an open letter to public school teachers last week.
The act had required teachers to take 14 courses in prescribed categories over a five-year period or face losing their Ontario teaching certificate.
“Ontario’s 193,000 teachers are professionals and we’re treating them with the professional respect they deserve,” Kennedy wrote.
“Unfortunately for students, this program was neither professional or about learning, but rather the old politics of division,” he added.
Preston said school boards and teachers themselves are best prepared to decide on what professional development is needed.
“The board develops a professional development plan to meet the goals set out by the board, and that makes more sense than the government setting out a plan that’s sort of one-size-fits-all for everybody across the province,” she explained.
“Our board has been very good about professional development goals within the board and supplying release days for teachers at different levels to receive professional development, particularly in areas of numeracy and literacy,” she said of the Rainy River District School Board.
“And to me, that makes sense,” Preston added. “That’s where it should come from because each board knows what is needed by the students within that board.”
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is equally pleased with the government’s decision.
“The professional learning program was a $30-million waste to the citizens of Ontario,” charged OSSTF president Rhonda Kimberley-Young. “It did not respect the professionalism of the teaching profession and was soundly rejected by our members.”
The program had cost the Ontario College of Teachers $10 million since its inception in 2001—and fewer than one in five teachers had submitted course results.
“We are pleased that the government has forged ahead on the removal of this onerous piece of legislation,” Kimberley-Young added.
The ministry instead will look at new approaches, including mentoring for new teachers, increased professional development days, and revised performance appraisal, Kennedy said.
Preston said the provincial government also has done away with testing for new teachers just entering the profession. This test was in addition to exams written while attending teachers’ college at university.
Preston said the test for new teachers was redundant because post-secondary education institutions that offer teaching programs already are accredited by the government.
“It was a formality and a real waste of taxpayers’ money,” Preston remarked, adding a better support for new teachers is mentoring.
“Our board has a very good program—the mentoring program,” she noted. “Other boards have talked to our board about the mentoring program [it has] in place.
“You’re learning from experienced teachers. You know you have someone to go to if you’re having difficulty in any area,” Preston stressed.
Both Liberals and New Democrats voted in favour of the legislation to do away with the PLP while the Conservatives were against it.
In other news, teachers’ unions in the province are displeased with Kennedy, however, for publicly discussing details of their collective agreements which currently are under negotiation.
On Dec. 7, the Ministry of Education released a statement saying it is prepared to “fund salary increases for all education workers of two percent for 2004-05, two percent for 2005-06, and, for four-year agreements, 2.5 percent in 2006-07 and three percent in 2007-08.
“They are getting some very negative feedback from people who are knowledgeable about collective agreements,” Preston said. “That should not be done in the public.
“Those are items that should be negotiated at the table, and not dictated by government.”
Preston said she was not sure how this would affect bargaining at the local level.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” she said. “If the government is going to put directives on what can and cannot be done, then they haven’t really entered into negotiations, which is improper.
“What the fallout from that will be I really do not know,” she added.
In addition, Kennedy sent letters directly to OSSTF local presidents to engage in “provincial dialogue” on issues relating to negotiations.
As a result, the OSSTF has filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
“Minister Kennedy’s letter to our local presidents is a serious breach of protocol and is seen as direct interference in local bargaining and federation affairs,” said Kimberley-Young.
“We cannot allow the minister to disregard and by-pass the current legal structure for collective bargaining,” she added. “We want him to cease and desist immediately from interfering in the internal affairs of the federation.”
All collective agreements with teachers in Ontario were opened Aug. 31.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
