Ontario schools working well thanks to one determined minister

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Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s just-replaced education minister, is one of those relatively rare politicians who wants to accomplish something in the job and has the skills to do it.

In his five years as minister, Lecce changed the balance of power in education and the content of what’s taught in schools. Both were long overdue and both were big achievements in a sector that offers an education minister plenty of antagonists and few friends.

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For years, Ontario public education has lacked rigour, accountability and a clear sense of what was to be achieved in the 14 years children spend in government schools. The primary and secondary education system was something students just had to endure so they could go on and endure the post-secondary system.

Under Lecce, Ontario’s schools have become much more connected to real life and the world of work. Math, science and literacy are the foundational skills for success in life. They have been given primacy in an overhaul which has changed 80 per cent of the elementary curriculum.

Phonics, a tried and true method of teaching language, has been brought back. Ontario has also introduced Canada’s first reading-screening program for all children from senior kindergarten to Grade 2. The goal is to identify children with reading problems at the earliest possible stage. The new math curriculum stresses financial literacy and coding.

In secondary schools, technological education is now a mandatory course requirement and the province has introduced a new pre-apprenticeship program that lets students learn skills in co-op placements as early as Grade 11. Lecce recently made a financial literacy test a graduation requirement. He also announced the return of home economics, although it might better be termed life skills. The idea is that students should leave school with at least some practical, real-world knowledge.

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In the past, the provincial government, school boards and teaching unions spent a lot of time wrestling for power. Under Lecce, the province is finally firmly in control. Last year, the provincial government passed Bill 98, legislation that lets it mandate binding academic achievement standards for school boards, and unions have forgone strikes and work to rule, at least for now.

In a speech to the Empire Club late last year, Lecce said, “As education minister, I had little power to drive systemic change, and that ended with Bill 98.” Lecce said the bill was “about repatriating power back to parents.” Really, the power is in the hands of the province, not the parents, but that’s an improvement over letting school boards run wild. Too many of them are left-wing talking shops more interested in the pursuit of social justice than they are in the pursuit of education.

Lecce has controlled the unions to the extent possible. Management of unions is a challenge for any education minister from any party, since Ontario’s education unions have attack as their default mode. Even when Lecce left the portfolio to become energy minister, union leaders couldn’t find a good thing to say about him.

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The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario said it was looking forward to a new minister, “after six years of being misled, dismissed, and undervalued by Minister Lecce,” Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Karen Littlewood said Lecce is “a great talker, but I don’t know that we’ve actually had the action that we need in schools.”

Lecce deserves significant credit for getting new contracts with all the education unions without labour disruptions. The minister was clear that the priority was keeping schools open. Pay was ultimately settled through arbitration. That was a big improvement over the provincial government’s attempt to use the notwithstanding clause to keep schools open in 2022. That blew up into a big labour protest and the government backtracked.

Not everything has been rosy under Lecce’s leadership. During the pandemic, Ontario closed schools for 135 days longer than any other province, favouring perceived safety over learning. Students are still trying to overcome that learning deficit. That’s not all on Lecce, of course: The Doug Ford administration over-reacted to the pandemic on every front.

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Ontario is also facing a shortage of teachers, a problem that was both foreseeable and solvable. There’s no solution to it yet, although expanding teachers’ college places would seem the obvious fix.

There are a lot of people to please in the education sector. Previous governments have focused too much on school boards and unions, not enough on parents. The strength of Lecce’s approach has been the priority he has given to parents and students, delivering a refreshed curriculum and setting standards for results.

Lecce is an ambitious politician who wasn’t afraid to shake up a staid sector and make overdue change. Ontario could use more like him.

National Post

Randall Denley is an Ottawa journalist.

randalldenley1@gmail.com

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