Media Release
For immediate release
Teacher learning means student learning
Toronto, May 18, 2016 – Today’s Auditor General’s report indicates that the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) received $34.8 million dollars for teacher professional development over 15 years. This works out to less than $15 per teacher per year. The report also identifies at least three other provinces in which the teacher federations receive funding to support professional learning. Although the amounts in these provinces may sound less significant; in fact, the amount per teacher is actually larger in both the Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia examples than the funding which OTF received.
OTF is proud of the professional learning opportunities it has made available to teachers. Many of these opportunities have been made possible as a result of funding from the Ministry of Education. OTF takes its responsibility to provide quality learning, in accordance with the expectations of the funding received, very seriously. Detailed evaluations and financial reports are consistently submitted to the Ministry. The 2006 grants identified in the Auditor General’s report provided quality conferences, workshops, on-line resources, and webinars to teachers over several years; in fact, OTF reported its expenditures and planned expenditures in detail to the Ministry consultant tasked with oversight of those funds.
Research substantiates that professional learning delivered by teachers for teachers has the greatest impact on improving classroom teaching. Teachers are continuously improving their practice, becoming models for other teachers and sharing their learning, not only in their own board but also across the province.
Ontario has seen significant improvements in graduation rates for students in Ontario’s publicly funded system. Since 2012, OTF has shared the success of our teacher professional learning programs with educational leaders from many different jurisdictions including Russia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea, China, the Bahamas, California, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. According to the Conference Board of Canada (June 2014), Canada ranked third overall in the world in education, with British Columbia first and Ontario second in Canada.
OTF is ideally placed to offer professional learning to teachers across Ontario and not just in a single school board. Additionally, OTF works closely with the over 50 Ontario subject and division associations to support learning across school boards, grades and subjects.
The Ontario Teachers’ Federation is the advocate for the teaching profession in Ontario and for its 160,000 teachers. OTF members are full-time, part-time and occasional teachers in all the publicly funded schools in the province—elementary, secondary, public, Catholic and francophone.
– 30 –
For more information, contact
Francine LeBlanc-Lebel, OTF President
416.966.3424
www.otffeo.on.ca