December 9, 2005 Highlights

1. Auditor General Reviews ESL Funding and Programs

On December 6, 2005, the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario released its annual report. The report includes a review of provincial English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English Literacy Development (ELD) programs. The review focused on the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, the Toronto DSB, and the York Region DSB.

The report highlighted a number of concerns with ESL/ELD programs, including:

• The failure of the Ministry of Education to require school boards to actually spend their ESL/ELD grants on the designated programs and services;
• The lack of a Ministry standard for boards to use to assess when ESL/ELD students have reached a language proficiency where they no longer require ESL/ELD services;
• The absence of guidance for teachers on how to adapt curriculum expectations for ESL/ELD students;
• The lack of minimum training requirements for regular classroom teachers who have a significant number of ESL/ELD students;
• The lack of assessment tools to monitor the progress of ESL/ELD students.
• The failure of the Ontario Student Record to adequately track ESL/ELD students' progress in language proficiency and social integration.

In response to a question on the report from NDP Education Critic Rosario Marchese, Education Minister Gerard Kennedy stated:

"What we've also done is state that all the new funds have to be specifically for English as a second language. Further, this year we're sitting down with the school boards. We gave them notice last June, far before the Auditor General's report, that we're reforming that grant and we'll expect accountability, not just for the new dollars we've given them but also for the dollars that went before."

To Auditor General's report is available online: http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_2005_en.htm

Read ETFO's media release on ESL support: ESL Students Need More Support, Public Elementary Teachers Say - December 6, 2005

2. PC MPP Calls for Audit of Teacher Development Fund

On December 7, PC Education Critic Frank Klees called on the government to apply the same accounting principles used for monitoring ESL/ELD funding to the disbursement of money to teachers from the Teacher Development Fund arising from last spring's provincial framework agreement for teacher collective bargaining:

"I'd like to move on, then, on that same principle about an $80-million transfer the Ministry of Education made to school boards across the province. Again in committee, the Minister of Education said without question that there were no specific guidelines tied to that. That was the $80 million that was transferred as a signing bonus to sign collective agreements. I asked the Minister of Education whether he would be prepared to have an audit completed on those funds to determine exactly where those funds were spent. Will the Premier today, in the same spirit, stand in his place and say, "Yes, an audit will be done on that $80 million to determine precisely where those monies went"? Answering for the Minister of Education who was absent from the Legislature, Premier Dalton McGuinty stated: "I'm not as familiar with the issue the member is raising now, but I'm glad to provide an undertaking to look further into that."

3. Women's Studies High School Curriculum

On December 8, PC MPP Elizabeth Witmer asked the Minister of Education to commit to a proposal from a group of women university students, the Miss G Project, to include an optional course in women's studies in high schools.

Education Minister Gerard Kennedy indicated it was an issue that the yet-to-be-established curriculum council could address. He also stated:

"The subject is serious: It's to make sure we have gender equity in our curriculum. We still have an absence of the kind of conscious counter-information that's there to make people aware of how this still creeps into our culture and how it hasn't been completely excised. I think it is important that upcoming generations have that complete assurance. In terms of how quickly that can be done -- I think it should be infused in all the curriculum and not restricted to a single course. It doesn't mean that such a course couldn't happen, but I think that maybe we have to be even broader in our ambition to fulfill the goal they want."

4. Government Announces More Initiatives to Address Drop-out Rates

On December 8, the government announced additional initiatives to address the problem of students dropping out of secondary school before completing their diploma requirements. The initiatives include:

• Adding a new Specialist High-Skills Major to the secondary diploma (OSSD) "that will allow students to complete a minimum bundle of course in specific high-skills areas such as arts, business, information technology, and construction and manufacturing;
• Introducing legislation that would require students to stay in school, apprenticeship, or workplace program until age 18 or until they graduate (an election promise);
• Expanding cooperative education programs;
• Creating new dual-credit programs to allow students to earn several credits toward an OSSD through college, apprenticeship, and university courses; and
• Strengthening links between high schools and post-secondary "destinations".

5. Legislation to End Mandatory Retirement Passes

On December 8, Bill 211, the legislation that proposes to end mandatory retirement at age 60 passed Third Reading. It will receive Royal Assent prior to the winter recess scheduled to begin on December 15, 2005. The legislation will take effect one year after the Royal Assent date.

The government maintains the legislation will not affect the pension benefits already earned of employees with pension plans and that employees will be able to continue to accrue benefits past age 65 subject to service or contribution caps in their respective plans. The legislation will not affect Ontarians' eligibility to receive Canada Pension Plan payments at age 65.

Once the legislative takes effect, collective agreements will no longer be able to include provisions requiring mandatory retirement unless allowed under the Human Rights Code as a "bona fide occupational requirement."

6. Workplace Harassment Bill Reintroduced

Bill 35, the Private Member's Bill introduced by Marilyn Churley that proposes to amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act to protect employees from harassment, was withdrawn last week when Ms. Churley resigned to run as a federal candidate. On December 6, the bill was re-introduced by NDP MPP Andrea Horwath as Bill45.

For more information, check the website of the Ontario Legislature: www.ontla.on.ca