BY PAUL JUNOR
On Tuesday, July 26th, 2022, Ontario Education Minister, Stephen Leece held an important cultural media roundtable to address issues that arose from the release of a new plan for the upcoming school year.
His Parliamentary Assistants, Patrice Barnes along with Matthew Rae, introduced Minister Leece to the roundtable. MPP Barnes was nominated as the PC candidate in Ajax and elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at the June 2nd, 2022, provincial election. She is a former school trustee with the Durham District School Board, a wife, mother, and community leader. She is an extremely organized individual with a hands-on approach, which enables her to juggle many different jobs.
Minister Leece started the roundtable by describing details of Ontario’s “Plan to Catch Up.” He highlighted the significant points, such as the fact that the Ontario government has invested heavily in public education with respect to the $26.6 billion that was allotted during the last budget. Of this amount, $175 million is earmarked toward enhancing tutoring support programs, which will involve school boards and community partners working together to ensure that students’ basic reading, writing, and math skills are developed.
“With almost 50,000 children benefiting from Ontario’s tutoring investments every week, and summer learning programs underway province-wide, Ontario’s plan is getting students back on track. With an emphasis on getting back to basics, our government is focused on strengthening life and job skills in the classroom, so that students graduate as financially literate, technologically savvy, emotionally intelligent leaders for the jobs of tomorrow.”
Minister Leece reiterates that the goal of the revised elementary mathematics curriculum is to ensure that students pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. He is convinced that this will be the wave of the future in education, and he wants Ontario students to thrive in these careers that will create financially successful jobs.
During the roundtable, questions were raised about the state of the negotiation between the teachers’ unions, and the government with respect to the expiration of contracts. Minister Leece assured the attendees that the Ontario government believes it is a priority to put the interests of the students first and that hopefully the contracts will be settled in time to avert future job actions.
The Ontario government would like to ensure that students resume normal activities that were suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic such as: clubs, bands, and field trips.
Teachers’ unions have raised concerns about the cutback in public education with respect to the reduction in funding that will impact class sizes, programs, and services.
The government disagrees and believes its investment is “historic funding.” Overall, the Ontario government is convinced that getting students back in the classroom, providing new tutoring supports, emphasizing life and job skills, investing to build modern schools, and expanding mental health support is the way to go.
Anyone interested in learning more about Ontario’s “Plan to Catch Up” can check:
Website: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release
Website: https://news.ontario.on.ca/en/backgrounder
