Supply and Demand

Minister reluctant to cut teacher education spaces

Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne, in her annual address to College Council, said she did not think reducing faculty of education places for initial teacher education was the right response to the teacher surplus.

The Minister was responding to speculation that the government may withdraw funding for some places in teacher education programs.

A decade ago, when College research showed that an unprecedented wave of retirements was imminent, the College Council called on the government to temporarily fund 2,000 spaces in faculties of education to deal with the expected shortage. In 2007, Ontario faculties of education graduated more than 8,700 new teachers, compared to 5,931 in 1999 when the College had requested a five-year increase.

Today, several years after the high retirement wave has passed, there are 7,000 more new teachers certified in the province each year – including internationally educated teachers –  than the number who retire.

Wynne said that there are competing pressures on the system that require more discussion about how to deal with the oversupply of teachers. Declining enrolment might suggest that teacher demand would shrink even further, Wynne said, but pointed out that reductions in enrolment are uneven geographically and that there is still a high demand for teachers with particular specialties.

She also said that government initiatives in education, such as full-day kindergarten and more investment in Grades 4 to 8, might affect teacher supply and demand in unpredictable ways.

“Until we know what the implementation [of these initiatives] will look like, we won’t know what the demand for teachers will be,” Wynne said.

The Minister also talked about the value of a teaching degree in general. She told Council that when she graduated from Queen’s University in 1977, she decided against taking a teacher education degree because job prospects were low.

“I regret that decision to this day,” she said. “I truly believe that if I had gone to teachers’ college, I would have got a job in teaching. My point is that we have to be careful not to constrain our places in the faculties strictly on a mathematical or demographic calculation.”

Wynne was adamant that she was not laying out policy, but said she felt strongly that a teacher education degree was valuable in and of itself and urged more discussion on the issue.

Asked if it is possible that kindergarten students in the future might be taught by unqualified personnel, the Minister said it was highly unlikely.

“At the end of the day, there will be more kindergarten teachers in the system. How many more, how many more early childhood educators there will be, I don’t know, but there will be more people working with young children. It’s just a matter of the balance of those professionals.”

In response to a question about reinstating technical and family studies, librarians and guidance personnel in elementary schools, the Minister said the government was putting more resources into Grades 4 to 8.

She said she would continue to advocate for resources for these grades, noting that these were critical years for ensuring that students would eventually graduate. But, she said, she would not commit to capping Grade 4 to 8 class sizes because she didn’t think that was the best use of resources.

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