From the CBC:
“TDSB needs millions to ensure safe return to school in fall, says one scenario includes cutting French”
The Toronto District School Board
(TDSB) says it is preparing for new possibilities when school returns in
September that may include no French classes and shortened school days. In a
new planning document being considered by the board, the TDSB also says that
accommodating some proposed plans for the fall could cost as much as $250
million. Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce outlined the province's plan
for students' return to school in September last month.
He laid out three different
models of instruction that boards should prepare for:
Full-time in-class teaching with
COVID-19 prevention measures in place.
Full-time remote learning.
A hybrid that would see half the
school population in class each day and half learning online at home.
The TDSB is meeting on July 15 to
hold preliminary discussions about what these scenarios could mean for the
board and how much they might cost. The
board said if they were to follow the hybrid model it "will force parents
to choose between educating their children and their own employment." In a
new planning document being considered by the board, the TDSB said their
reports show if they were to group all elementary students into sets of 15 with
one teacher, that scenario would require them to hire nearly 2,500 additional
teachers at a cost of $249 million. If the TDSB were to end the school day 48
minutes early that would reduce the cost to $99 million. But in this scenario,
the board said there would not be enough teachers to offer core French language
instruction to all students. The board also said any unused space throughout
schools would be needed to accommodate students in this type of setting with
smaller class sizes. However, even if the TDSB were to only hold classes from
kindergarten to Grade 3 with 15 students and the rest of classes set at 20
kids, the Board said French classes would still be unavailable. They would also
need to hire 1,900 new teachers, which would cost $190 million. If students
were dismissed 48 minutes early each day, they would still need 200 new
teachers at a cost of $20 million.
Safety most important for board
and province: Both the provincial
government and the school board have said safety is the most important thing to
consider for any kind of return to school. The board said the price of
purchasing PPE and other pandemic related costs in returning to a regular
pre-pandemic school day will cost the TDSB more than $22 million for the first
four months of the school year. TDSB
said the Ministry of Education has not provided enough funding to even cover
this shortfall. "We have been actively planning for our return considering
all possibilities ensuring that student and staff well-being and safety is the
priority," the board said. The school board has formed an Integrated
Return to School and Work Steering Committee and several sub-committees to plan
and prepare for September. The TDSB said they are also working with
communities, including unions and federation partners, staff, parents/guardians
and students. The board said final plans will be developed and submitted to the
Ministry of Education on August 4 in accordance with Toronto Public Health.
^ According to the 2016 Census .1%
(that’s point one percent) speak only French and only 9.1% (that’s nine point
one percent) are bilingual in English and French in Toronto. In the whole
Province of Ontario – which has the largest French-speaking minority community
in the country (which includes the Officially Bilingual Capital of Ottawa) only
11.2% (that’s elven point two percent) of the population (1,490,390 people) are
bilingual in both English and French. Toronto, as a major Canadian city, needs
to teach more – not teach less – French. The number of people in Toronto who
knows French is very low and that is after 50 years of Official English-French
Bilingualism. If Toronto wants to be a major leader throughout Canada then it needs to promote French - including French Language in schools. I understand it can be costly, but the real cost of not teaching French is much higher. I'm a Canadian who can speak French and English (as well as Russian) and know how important it is to know and use both languages - which I have throughout Canada and the world. ^
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