Ontario’s education system needs to evolve

BY STEVEN KASZAB

In 2021-2022 Ontario’s school boards spent $28.8 Billion dollars. Approximately two million students were enrolled in public school, of which 1.4 million were enrolled in elementary school and 605,000 in secondary schools. These costs have risen as have all costs affecting the public’s cost of living and costs to do business. Education is an essential service, yet the provincial government does not treat it as such. The very education system is controlled and manipulated by various teachers’ unions, whose influence continues to grow as too their opposition to the Ontario Conservative Parties attempts to manage and apply cost controls upon them.

There are French public schools and boards. Their autonomy is protected by the constitution. Costs within all fields of education continue to spin out of control, while various school boards compete for much needed skilled workers to fill employment slots. Many schools are in disrepair and/or on a waitlist to be repaired and maintained. Permanent air conditioning is basically non-existent, so the two months of vacation in summer remains a driving policy for this and other provincial governments.

Lackluster treatment of the school systems problems remains central to all governments, and discussions continue, while piecemeal solutions are provided.

What do you think needs to be done? I have a few thoughts.

• Use notwithstanding clauses to change the constitutional status of the necessity of public schools to pay for French immersion and French schools. French schools should become a private business affair, and not a public-school problem. Learning French is a choice that should require a cost to those who participate.
• Government owned and operated construction firms need to be responsible for the maintenance and building of schools, taking away profitable building costs from private developers. Build with imagination, not absolute necessity as is being done.
• The teacher’s cartel needs to be broken. Teaching is a profession of service, not a guaranteed lifetime employment opportunity. Boards and the Ministry need to be able to: scrutinize, investigate, and project their expectations upon the teacher’s performance, not the other way round where a teachers union calls the shots
• Propaganda such as “We are doing it for the kids” needs to be limited and properly understood by the public. The union represents adult teachers and employee’s, not children. They care about the financial welfare of their membership and no one else.
• In areas where schooling is limited, because of lack of funding, isolation, or demographic challenges, schools should be able to evolve to private school mode, attracting funding not from the public, but from private concerns. A school’s independence is dependent upon its location. Each location is distinctly different and needs things that can solve problems not seen in other regions, or locals.
• An insurance policy should be provided to parents and guardians of students ensuring the students will receive all necessary education. If not, the parents need to be compensated. Schooling is limited in time and scope, so a student lost, not taught well is cause for investigation and authoritative treatment of those responsible for the teaching of a student. Teachers need to be absolutely responsible for the product they help form and teach the student.
• All digital or A.I. centered products must not be used in school until their senior years. The manual ability to use one’s brain, solve problems by thought and on paper is needed. The return of the three “R’s’ is required.
• Teachers are not: police, therapists, or social workers; they are there to teach! Each school needs an independent therapist, police officers and possibly social workers on a permanent basis. Police intermingle within the social fabric of the school while protecting both students and teachers. Therapists assist both school bodies as well. Social service workers would assist in the ever-increasing demands of the schools changing demographic.
• The translation of our world’s realities must be explained to our students. How and why must be a part of the conversation. This is Ontario, where issues are dealt with in an orderly and adult fashion. No censorship, involvement of outside lobbyists and religious institutions unless we discuss the Catholic School Board. Religion in public schools needs to remain separate from all school operations.
• The government needs to change our association with the Catholic School Board, the services Ontario is responsible to provide. Education requires a unity of purpose, and not a separation of thought and effort. The sale of the Catholic Board to the Roman Catholic Church in Ontario may be a wise investment for the future. If the Catholics have their own school board, why not the Muslims, Buddhist? Unity is not assured through religious diversity in training our children but can lead to future conflict and mistrust.

The teachers are employed to teach our kids. The school boards are elected and paid well to ensure that happens. The Education Ministry is responsible for all groups involved. Why can’t the system produce educated students ready to compete within the world economy?