By Joanne Stassen
Paul Dewar, a Grade 7 and 8 teacher at Hopewell Avenue Public School, holds up his letter from the Ontario College of Teachers. It says he has been randomly selected for the first round of the provincial government’s “Professional Learning Program.”
He’s returning it to sender.
Dewar’s union, the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario, is telling members to return such letters to the college.
“Sending this letter back is essentially saying ‘No thank-you’ to the government” says Dewar.
All four teacher’s unions are taking the same approach. It amounts to a boycott of the program.
“The government may paint us as being against professional development” says Linus Shea, unit president for the Ottawa-Carleton English Catholic Teachers Association. But Shea says this is not the case. Teachers should take whatever courses they feel they need, he says, but they should keep track of their own records, instead of submitting them as part of the program.
David Wildman, president of the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Teachers Federation, says, “It’s insulting to teachers.” Teachers already participate in professional development and learning, he says.
David Wildman says the program was “hatched during an election campaign to make the public think teachers don’t participate in (professional development) and are not accountable and the government is going to fix that.”
The unions also have other issues with the program.
“Nothing is clear” says Serge Larre, president of the Ottawa-Carleton branch of the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens. “Who’s going to do the tests? What sort of courses? This is so nebulous.” Larre says teachers were asked to “give the government a blank cheque” before they knew what the program would involve.
Cost is another concern.
The government says teachers must pay for their professional learning courses. Paul Dewar says his friends in hi-tech are surprised. When they take professional development courses their employers pay— “It would never be tolerated in the private sector,” laughs Dewar.
Unions are also concerned the cost of administering the tests will fall on teachers’ shoulders—through a hike in their fees to the college.
Tanya Cholakov, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, says, “Teachers who do not complete requirements may have their certificate cancelled.”
What if all teachers in the first cohort send back their letters?
Denys Giguere, a collegespokesperson, says “We will have to return the letters with another notice, explaining to members that the program is not optional. It has been legislated and we will follow the legislation.”
Patrick Holloway, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ federation representative at Centretown’s Adult High School, isn’t worried. “It’s not going to last,” he says, echoing the point raised on his union’s Web site—the government pushing the program may be out of office before the first cohort completes its 5-year re-certification cycle.