EDITORIAL: Teacher unions crying wolf

Article content

If Ontario Premier Doug Ford intends to destroy public education as the teacher unions keep warning, he’s going about it in a strange way.

The latest initiative of his Progressive Conservative government will require new (not existing) teachers to score 70% on a basic mathematics test (fractions, division, percentages, etc.) that will also assess teaching methods.

Recommended Videos

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

EDITORIAL: Teacher unions crying wolf Back to video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

It’s being developed by the province’s Education Quality and Accountability Office that administers standardized tests in reading, writing and mathematics to students.

They will be conducted by faculties of education, with no limit on the number of times new teachers can take the test if they fail the first time — although they will have to pay a fee for subsequent testing.

This is one of several initiatives the government is implementing — including a new math curriculum emphasizing the mastery of basic educational skills and memorization, as opposed to so-called “discovery math” — to address the alarming decline of student proficiency in math.

It includes earmarking more resources to help teachers improve their math sills.

Why? Because only 49% of students in Grade 6 met the provincial standard in math (a mark of 70%) last year, compared to 61% in 2010.

In Grade 3, only 61% of students met the standard, down from 71% in 2010.

While the province’s teacher unions — who have fought every Ontario government of every political stripe for decades — are opposed to teacher (and student) testing, they are increasingly resembling the boy who cried wolf.

Previously they warned, hysterically and incorrectly, that Ford’s new sex-ed curriculum — which he promised during last year’s provincial election — would throw Ontario schools back into the dark ages. Didn’t happen.

Before that they predicted, hysterically and incorrectly, that thousands of teachers would be laid off as the Ford government right-sized the education system after years of the previous financially reckless Liberal government increasing the number of teachers while student enrolment declined.

That hasn’t happened because this is being done through attrition, with the government earmarking $1.6 billion to school boards to avoid layoffs.

As we head into the 2019-20 school year, the teacher unions are again warning about classroom turmoil as they negotiate new contracts, just as they did when the Liberals were in power. What a surprise.