By Nicola Luksic
Centretown News made repeated attempts over the last month to elicit response from the Ministry of Education and its Minister Janet Ecker.
On Oct. 25, the Ministry’s director of communications Diane Gumbs told Centretown News that if the Minister was unavailable for an interview, the Ministry might provide an article answering criticisms leveled at the teacher testing program.
The following questions e-mailed to Gumbs on Nov. 15.
• Critics (teachers, opposition) say the Mike Harris government is sending very negative messages to teachers. Teaching morale has deteriorated. What teachers need in order to improve education, they argue, is government support. How do you respond?
• Why is a standard province-wide teaching evaluation system needed? i.e. What was wrong with the former school board-based evaluations and teachers programs?
• Both Liberal and NDP education critics say that, if elected, they will revisit the Conservative initiatives re: teacher testing program and completely change them. Does this concern you?
On Nov. 21 Ministry spokesperson Tanya Cholakov said she was unable to respond to criticisms and directed Centretown News to the Ministry Web page.