#Ontario; #OntarioEducation; #ElementaryTeachersFederationofOntario; #OntarioSecondarySchoolTeachersFederation; #ChildrenToBeKeptInClass

Ottawa, Nov 26 (Canadian-Media): In statement issued today by the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce on the first day of work-to-rule action, Lecce said that he very clearly wanted to get deals that keep the children of this province in school, media reports said.

Stephen Lecce/Facebook

"It is regrettable the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO), and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) have chosen to escalate to work-to-rule action, only hurting our children. This escalation to a partial withdrawal of services, including targeting math supports and report cards, hurts our children the most," said Lecce.

Lecce expressed the hope that with voluntarily negotiated agreement with CUPE, by working together we would be able to reach a deal that provides certainty and predictability to parents, students, and educators to have all the students in class. 

Lecce assured that his negotiating team is ready for meaningful, good-faith bargaining round the clock to reach the deals Ontario students and families deserve and put the needs of children first. 

#OSSTF; #OntarioTeachers, #OntarioSecondarySchoolTeachers, #ProvinceWideJobAction; #Teachers, #Ontario

Ottawa, Nov 21 (Canadian-Media): It was announced today by Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation  (OSSTF) president Harvey Bischof  that OSSTF will start a province-wide job action next week including "information pickets" and withdrawal of some administrative services, media reports said.

Harvey Bischoff/Twitter

Bischof said that as long as the job action is ongoing, services like teachers' preparing EQAO or testing, go to unpaid staff meetings outside the school day, or provide comments on high school report cards will not be carried out.
Bischof  added that submission of Ministry of Education data reports by Union members or their participation in professional activities based on ministry or school board initiatives, will not be conducted.
"I can't give you a timeline," Bischof said. "We are responsive to whether or not bargaining is progressing."

#OntarioMinisterOfEducation, #MediationWithEducationalPartnersInOntario; #OntarioEducation; #OntarioStudents

Toronto, Nov 18 (Canadian-Media): Today, Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, issued the following statement calling for mediation in the ongoing labour negotiations, media reports said. 

Stephen Lecce/Twitter

"My goal, since day one, has been to reach negotiated settlements with our education partners, with the intention of keeping Ontario's students in the classroom.

​While our Government has been a reasonable force and student-focused at the bargaining table, the labour unions continue to take escalating steps towards strike action. Strike action could mean school closures, disruption, and uncertainty for students and parents.

​Today, I am offering all education sector unions the option to enter into mediation. I believe this is the right step, as mediation involves an independent third party to assist the unions, trustee associations, and the Government in reaching settlements.

I am asking all our partners to accept this offer so together we can reach deals that keep our kids in class.
​
As I have always said, my negotiating team stands ready for meaningful, good faith bargaining 24/7, to reach the deals Ontario students and families deserve." 

#UN’s2030AgendaforSustainableDevelopment; #UN; #UNESCO

New York, Nov 12 (Canadian-Media): Education is an “essential pillar” to achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN chief António Guterres told an audience on Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization, ahead of the agency’s General Conference.

Secretary-General António Guterres delivers remarks at the 40th General Conference of UNESCO in Paris, France. © UNESCO/Christelle Alix

Mr. Guterres, who noted that one-fifth of young people are out of work, lack education or adequate training, praised UNESCO’s fundamental role in coordinating and monitoring global efforts, such as the agency’s initiative on the future of education.

The theme was taken up by Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the UN General Assembly, in his opening remarks to a ministerial meeting on education at the Conference.

Mr. Muhammad-Bande referred to estimates showing that some 265 million children are out of school. The number is projected to fall to 220 million over the next decade, but he declared that the illiteracy figures forecast for 2030 remain a scandal: “We must remove all barriers to education. We must ensure, at a minimum, universal access to basic education for every child, everywhere.”

He also highlighted the importance of educating children effectively, and equipping them with the necessary analytical and critical thinking abilities, in “an ever-changing and more complex world”.

Recalling his former experience as an educator in his home country of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammad-Bande called for more efforts to ensure that teachers are adequately qualified, because “no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers”.

Other important measures cited by the General Assembly President include strong curricula that fully integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT); ensuring that girls complete at least 12 years of education (which, according to the World Bank, would add some $30 trillion to the global economy); and the effective monitoring and evaluation of learning.

Mr. Muhammad-Bande called on nations to meet their commitments to education spending, and for donor countries to increase international aid directed towards education.

‘Powerful agents of change’​

As well as the difficulties in accessing quality education, Mr. Guterres also outlined several other challenges faced by young people: the fact that millions of girls become mothers while they are still children; that one quarter are affected by violence or conflict; and that online bullying and harassment are adding to high levels of stress, which see some 67,000 adolescents die from suicide or self-harm every year.

World leaders, and others who wield power, he continued, must treat young people not as subjects to be protected, but as powerful agents for change, and the role of the powerful is not to solve the enormous challenges faced by young people, but rather to give them the tools to tackle their problems.
​
Mr Guterres underscored the importance of bringing young people to the table as key partners, and praised UNESCO’s efforts to include their voices, which include holding a major event at the General Conference, and the Youth Forum.

#FordGovt, #Ontario; #OntarioTeachers; #capPublicSectorWageIncreaseToOne% 

Ottawa, Nov 8 (Canadian-Media): Ontario’s teachers are preparing the challenge the government in court  over a new law that caps all public sector wage increases to one per cent a year for the next three years, media reports said.

The bill, which applies to employees at school boards, universities and colleges, hospitals, long-term care homes and other organizations, would affect more than a million public sector workers
​
The four major unions representing high school, elementary, Catholic and French teachers in the province issued a joint statement Thursday evening shortly after the bill was passed in the legislature.

“The (Doug) Ford government will stop at nothing to impose its will, if only for ideological reasons,” the president of the French teachers’ union, Remi Sabourin, said in the statement.

“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees us the right to negotiate a win-win agreement, but Ford and his government are choosing to disregard that right.”

Most of the province’s teachers are already gearing up for a potential strike.

#UN; #EradicationOfAntisemitism; #Educatio&Culture


​New York, Nov 8 (Canadian-Media): Since nobody is born to hate, intolerance can be prevented and unlearned, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday, in a speech underlining his continued fight to stamp out antisemitism, racism and other forms of hatred.

Secretary-General António Guterres delivers a keynote address at the 81st Anniversary Commemoration of Kristallnacht at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York.  Photo Credit: UN/Antonio Ferrari

António Guterres was speaking at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York which was marking the 81st anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom carried out by the Nazi regime.

Scores of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were destroyed during “the Night of Broken Glass” on 9-10 November 1938.

For the UN chief, the commemoration was an opportunity not just to look back, but to recognize the need for continued vigilance.

Antisemitism persists decades after Holocaust“Decades after the Holocaust, the world’s oldest hatred is still with us”, he remarked, before listing recent incidents across the world targeting Jews.

They ranged from the vandalization of Jewish graves and the defacement of a Holocaust memorial, to the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last year - the worst antisemitic attack in United States history.

At the same time, other forms of intolerance are also taking a deadly toll, Mr. Guterres stated, citing examples such as church bombings, massacres at mosques, and assaults on migrants and refugees.

“Hatred kills,” he said. “But hatred also works in insidious ways to undermine relations between people and the foundations of society.”
​
Terrorists and neo-Nazis are ramping up recruitment and radicalization, he continued, while the Internet has helped to spread bigotry and violent misogyny.

New UN education conference against hate speech

The Secretary-General called for urgent action by parents, teachers and political leaders “before underground hatred becomes an overt and alarming new normal.”

Mr. Guterres highlighted efforts by the global community to counter these threats, such as UN action plans to address hate speech and to ensure the safety of houses of worship.

“Education must be a key part of this preventive approach, and I am announcing today that I intend to convene a conference on the role of education in addressing and building resilience against hate speech,” he revealed.

“We are also focusing on the protection of religious sites in the wake of deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand, the Easter church bombings in Sri Lanka and other assaults. Just last month in Germany, a gunman killed two people while trying to storm a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.”

Next year, the UN marks its 75th anniversary and Mr. Guterres said the focus will be on equality and human dignity.

He underscored the importance of young people in this regard, adding that 100 high school students and their teachers will be at the UN this Friday to attend a workshop on the Holocaust.

“People are not born to hate; intolerance is learned and so can be prevented and unlearned,” he stated. “I will continue to call out antisemitism, racism and other forms of hatred.”

#Ontario; #Ontario’spublicelementaryschools; #ElementaryTeachersFederationofOntario

Ottawa, Nov 4 (Canadian-Media): Ontario’s public elementary schools teachers are moving toward a legal strike position, media reports said.

Amid tense contract talks today, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the government met with a conciliator .

The union says it is now requesting what is known as a no-board report, which can take a few days to be issued. Seventeen days after that happens, teachers would be in a legal strike position.

ETFO/Facebook

“We are left with no choice,” ETFO president Sam Hammond said Monday.

Hammond says the parties are set to meet again next week, and he hopes the government will get serious.

ETFO members voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action last week.

Sam Hammond/Facebook

#Ontario; #OntarioSchoolsCellPhoneRestrictions; #OntarioSchools

Ottawa, Nov 4 (Canadian-Media): New restrictions on the use of cellphones and mobile devices in Ontario classrooms would take effect on Monday, media reports said.

A short statement was released Sunday by Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce, ahead of the restrictions of cell phones in classes after parents and educators reported the growing distracted students.

Stephen Lecce/Twitter

“Student performance in high stakes exams significantly increases” with a ban on mobile phones. The improvements were largely seen among the students who were normally the lowest achieving,” ​a 2015 London School of Economics and Political Science paper found.

97 percent of students, parents and teachers who participated in last year’s consultations opted for restricted use of cellphone in classes.

Although some schools already have similar policies, but the directive sets a provincial standard.

Lecce added that the restrictions would provide a focused and academically-enriched learning environment for our students.

Students's use of personal mobile devices during instructional time would be limited to educational purposes and under an educator’s instructions.

Exceptions will be made for health and medical purposes, to support special education needs, or for educational purposes as directed by an educator.