As many of our TVOT members have recognized, this government is threatening to do away with Regulation 274 which legislates Teacher/LTO hiring across Ontario. TVOT members are concerned about losing transparency in the hiring process and they worry about a return to hiring based on "who you know" or being "the right fit" for a position with no clear path to permanency. Those on the LTO List are concerned that the newly graduated will leap-frog into LTOs and permanent hires without ever honing their skills as the sole authority in the class.
Prior to Regulation 274, our Local had identified a pool of Occasional Teachers who were so successful in their LTOs that Principals would call them first for full year assignments, yet these same people could not get a permanent position (unless one became available in that school) because they were anonymous to the rest of the system. Regulation 274 successfully moved these OTs into permanent positions within one year.
Judging one candidate a better fit over another neglects the fact that a Teacher's credentials will change over their career and it overlooks that a Teacher is hired to the Board and not to a specific school where those needs and/or the Principal may change in a just few years.
As we have seen before, rather than address any flaws or challenges, this government is all too quick to revert to past practice and so Regulation 274 is on the line.
ETFO has developed a website making it easy to add your voice to those who want to preserve fair hiring so we urge you to visit https://buildingbetterschools.ca/fairhiring at your earliest opportunity.
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Provincial ETFO urges all ETFO members (Teachers and Occasional Teachers) to wear "Red for EDucation" every Friday moving forward in protest of the continuing cuts to education. We are all aware that thousands of children who are dealing with autism will be returning to our classrooms in April with very little additional support. This is not good for anyone. The government predicts that their newly announced increase in class size will result in a loss of 18,000 teaching positions over the next four years. How is this good for students?
This Friday, stand in solidarity with your fellow ETFO members and wear RED for EDucation .
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Beyond the smoke and mirrors - what's really going to happen in our classrooms?
by Diane Dewing, OTF President:
The recent announcement by the Ontario Minister of Education reveals the true goals of the Ford government and they are not pretty. Forget the issue to cell phones and sex education - essentially these issues are smoke and mirrors for the government to distract parents from the real issue of an estimated $ 1.4 billion being cut from public education.
What's going to happen to our kids in the classroom? Well, if you take a small secondary school of 700, the proposed change in average class size from 22 to 28 means a reduction of seven teachers. This translates to larger classes for compulsory secondary school subjects, loss of smaller programs such as technology, and puts our most vulnerable students at risk of not having supports within the school. These job losses will negatively impact the programs and quality of the education of all Ontario's students.
Online courses may be meant to compensate for the thousands of teacher job losses. Evidence proves that these courses are only effective for some students. An Ontario Student Trustees' Association (OSTA) survey of 2017 showed that 75% of student respondents rated online courses as not giving comparable-quality learning capabilities of the classroom. Making online courses mandatory puts vulnerable students at greater risk. The support of a real teacher in a real classroom is the best answer for our students.
Although the Ontario Government still has not released the consultation results to which it refers, OTF doubts that parents want to see fewer programs and supports for their children, thousands of teacher jobs lost, or a move to mandatory online secondary credits.
Ontario's public education system has earned world-wide recognition as one of the best. Premier Ford is not keeping his election promise; instead, he and his government are threatening our children's hopes for the future.
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Retirement Planning Workshop
District 8, Retired Teachers of Ontario, is hosting a Retirement Planning Workshop on Saturday, April 6 at the Best Western Lamplighter on Wellington Rd. S. in London from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm, registration starts at 10:00 am. Hot & Cold buffet Lunch at 12:00 pm. All members and their spouses/partners are invited to attend this workshop at no charge. This workshop will include presentations about the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the RTO Health Benefits plan.
Register online: rto-ero.org/rpw
Questions? rpw@rto-ero.org or 1-800-361-9888
