Following concerns surrounding teacher shortages, the Ontario government has made a seven-figure investment.
Thirteen Ontario universities offering Bachelor of Education degrees—including Queen’s—are set to receive a $55.8 million provincial investment aimed at training 2,600 new teachers by 2027. The investment was announced on June 20 at Duncan McArthur Hall by the Ontario Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, Nolan Quinn. University Rector Niki Boytchuk-Hale and the former Dean of the Faculty of Education, Rebecca Luce-Kapler, who was succeeded by Amy Burns as Dean shortly after the announcement on July 1, were also in attendance.
“With this early intervention, our government is proactively addressing teacher shortages and giving more postsecondary students the opportunity to become future educators,” Quinn said during the announcement. “Access to qualified teachers is critical for students to achieve academically and succeed in the jobs of tomorrow.”
According to a report from the Council of Ontario Directors of Education, which represents the heads of Ontario’s public school boards, 70 per cent of elementary schools and 74
per cent of secondary schools are currently experiencing daily or weekly shortages of qualified teachers, which the report constitutes a “crisis” in certain parts of Ontario.
Quinn specified that this investment will prioritize teacher‐education programs that produce graduates qualified to teach in French, Indigenous, rural and Northern classrooms, where Ontario is seeing some of the most significant shortages, according to the report.
The funding will also support the expansion of condensed Bachelor of Education programs, which are accelerated semesters, from May until Aug. of the next year, allowing candidates to complete their training in about a year, rather than the traditional two academic years. According to The Kingstonist, before this investment, the teaching program at Queen’s had been capped at 792 full-time equivalent students. This was due to limitations imposed by the province’s funded enrolment framework, which restricts how many teacher candidates each university can admit.
While the number of spots for teacher candidates are yet to be decided, and funding amounts towards the school haven’t been specified—as conversations with the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security take place—Burns seems optimistic about its impact in a statement made to The Journal.
“As the new Dean for the Queen’s Faculty of Education, I’m excited about the Ontario government’s new investment in teacher education,” Burns wrote. “The impact of this investment will be felt well beyond the university. This increases the number of teachers we can graduate, meaning that schools, classrooms, and students across the province will have even more amazing Queen’s alumni leading the learning in their communities.”
Tags
Education, First Year in Focus, government funding, provincial funding
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.