CERTIFICATION

New certificates for new teachers

Proposed amendments to the Ontario College of Teachers Act will result in new certificates for newly certified teachers.

Bill 78 is an act to amend the Education Act, the Ontario College of Teachers Act and other education-related statutes. If it passes, the College will automatically convert applicable teaching certificates.

The Certificate of Qualification (provisional) would be converted to a Certificate of Qualification (CQ) and the Interim Certificate of Qualification (provisional) would become an Interim Certificate of Qualification (ICQ). ICQs are converted to CQs when all other conditions (such as successfully teaching for 194 days) have been met.

If passed, the new legislation will officially end the paper-and-pencil Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test as a condition for entry to teaching.

In its place, the provincial government has proposed a mandatory New Teacher Induction Program in all publicly funded school systems. The program would provide support in the form of orientation and mentoring to newly certified teachers hired permanently by school boards.

Teachers would have up to two years to complete the program, after which boards would notify the College. The new legislation would require the College to add a notation to the certificates of teachers who successfully completed the New Teacher Induction Program.

The Minister of Education requested that the College add “provisional” to the certificates of new teachers as a temporary bridge between the old qualifying test and the introduction of a new program.