Do you have an opinion about the College of Teachers?
February 03, 2012
There’s an independent review of Ontario’s College of Teachers going on, and they want to hear from you!
The College of Teachers was established in 1997 to regulate and govern the teaching profession. This fall, the College asked the Honourable Patrick LeSage to conduct a review of its Dispute Resolution Program and its Investigation and Discipline Procedures and Outcomes.
Among many questions Mr. LeSage is asking:
- Is the public given sufficient information related to the College and its investigative and disciplinary processes and decisions?
- As with most professional colleges, the majority of the governing council are teachers. Do you have any thoughts about the current makeup of the council?
- Which parts of the College’s Discipline Committee decisions should be made public? Are there cases where the name should be withheld?
If you’d like to have input, you can click here to join the discussion in the Online Community (we will forward the complete discussion to Justice Lesage), or you can contact Justic Lesage’s office by email: lynn.mahoney@gowlings.com.
People For Education Viewpoint:
The vast majority of Ontario’s teachers serve their students well, and will never give any cause to be investigated by the College of Teachers.
But, as one person in the online community explains, that rare teacher who should be investigated for their behaviour or their competence can have a big impact. “If you consider a teacher who has been in the system for upwards of 20 years you are talking about hundreds of children who may be affected by their incompentence and the ramifications of that are multifold.”
It’s an important conversation and it affects both children and public confidence in education. So let the reviewers know what you think.
Join the Discussion »
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Ontario College of Teachers
Lodging a complaint is a long process, and I think the average person would be intimidated by the current process. The college has protection in place for "vexious" complaints. I am more concerned with the lack of action of the college if they feel the school board has intervened appropriately for discipline or incompentcy issues. The college sets the standard for teacher professionalism, school boards can't hire someone unless they meet the college certification. The college should be monitoring more "teaching practice" concerns. It is absolutely mind boggling that criminal activity of teachers has become the college's responsibility. The justice system should be dealing with many of these issues, and once a teacher is convicted of any crime, the loss of their certification should be automatic. View the full discussion.