By
Margaret Wilson
Most of the College’s
focus in recent weeks has been on the proposals
in Bill 160 which appeared to undermine our
mandate to certify and set standards of
qualification and practice for the teaching
profession.
The
potential establishment of different classes of
teachers – some College members and some not
– flew in the face of our responsibility to
govern our profession in the public interest. The
prompt, clear response from the College Council that Ontario’s
students deserve to be taught by qualified
teachers obviously struck home with the public.
The
Minister of Education and Training responded to
our concerns and agreed to meetings between
College staff and ministry officials.
The
government has now withdrawn the four clauses
which could have been used to establish a
parallel regulatory structure and has clarified
that its intent is to deal with "the duties
and minimum qualifications of persons who are
assigned to assist teachers or to complement
instruction by teachers in elementary or
secondary schools."
Those of
you who already work with other professionals and
paraprofessionals will be aware of a number of
existing ministry policy memorandums which define
duties and qualifications for non-teachers.
We
Apologize
We have
heard from many members in the last few months
about errors in the certificates the College
mailed to teachers. We’re sorry for any
inconvenience caused by these errors. We are
working hard to correct them.
The
information on the certificates was collected by
the College from the Ministry of Education and
Training, school boards and private
schools, and members’ personal applications.
These records had been kept in a variety of ways
– electronic data files, microfiche,
microfilm, several different kinds of paper
records – and transferring them to the
College was a real challenge.
When we set
out to provide teachers with complete and
up-to-date Certificates of Qualification we
suspected that some teachers’ records were
missing important information such as name
changes or additional degrees or qualifications
that might not have been reported to the
ministry.
That’s
why we sent a form along with the certificates
for teachers to correct any errors in their
certificates.
20-Year-Old
Errors
However,
after we mailed the certificates, we learned that
the dates on teachers’ degrees earned before
1977 were wrong. When the Ontario Teacher’s
Certificate was introduced almost 20 years ago,
the dates when degrees were conferred were
replaced in the electronic records by the year
that the information was entered into the
ministry’s database. In some cases, the
problem continued after 1978. The record cards
(OTQRCs) issued by the ministry didn’t
display these dates, so teachers didn’t
detect the errors.
This
problem and data entry errors in the ministry
records were the major sources of errors in the
College’s 1997 certificates. Other errors
were mostly due to the problems that come with
trying to translate information from a variety of
sources into one complete record.
The College
has launched a major initiative to correct these
errors. We have asked teachers to let us know
about any errors in the certificates so we can
make the corrections before issuing the 1998
certificates. College staff are working evening
and weekend shifts to straighten this problem
out.
Help
Us Get it Right
We’ve
mailed posters that set out how these errors can
be corrected to every public, separate and
private school in the province, along with extra
correction forms. If you need more information,
please refer to the Frequently Asked
Questions in this issue of Professionally Speaking.
The College
will be issuing the 1998 Certificate of
Qualification early next spring to all members in
good standing. To ensure that your future
certificates accurately reflect your
qualifications, please notify us as soon as
possible of any errors in your 1997 certificate.
