Ontario's public education system is, by any measure, one of the best in the world but there are two festering sores that, if not treated, will cause this system to suffer irreparable damage. The first, the hiring of new teachers, I dealt with here.
The second is the dismissal of incompetent teachers.
Let's begin with the case of a teacher who, according to an investigation by the Ontario College of Teachers, was found to have:
- Failed to maintain a the standards of the profession
- Failed to keep records according to the standards of the profession
- Failed to adequately supervise people under his or her care
- Failed to comply with the Education Act
Evidence was presented at the teacher's hearing that he or she was:
- unprepared for class
- did not provide students with feedback
- did not monitor students properly
- did not know how to manage a classroom
- did not know the curriculum
The teacher was reprimanded and publicly admonished in the College of Teacher's magazine Professionally Speaking. Remember, this represents a case where the Principal, the Board, the Union, the teacher's colleagues, the parents and students all did what they were supposed to do; they reported, they documented, they gave adequate defense, they counselled.
This teacher is still in our classrooms.
This is the shame of my profession and there's plenty of blame to go around.
First we have boards and the government of Ontario. The boards poorly screen new hires in their first years, failing to weed out obviously flawed candidates. Connected to this is the Ontario government and its regulation 274 that hires teachers on seniority rather than merit. You could not design a better system to encourage mediocrity.
Once an incompetent teacher is hired, boards move them, rolling these lemons on a regular basis and remaining unmoved by the pleas of parents, teachers, administrators and students. Boards of education remain terrified of law suits and as a result grow more and more comfortable with the incompetency that they have permitted to grow.
Why did the board of education, who employs the teacher in the case above, continue to employ the teacher?
Next, teachers and their unions are to blame. Many times teachers, for fear of reprisal, fail to report gross incompetency. They turn a blind eye to the incompetent across the hall, willing to throw other people's children in front of these disasters. The teachers' unions, trying to defend "the process" defend gross incompetency, with little regard for the harm it does to students and the reputation of their membership and their own credibility in the educational conversation. Some of these incompetents are defended by the union their entire careers, wasting the time and energy and resources of the union that should be used to protect and promote the good work most teachers do.
Finally, the public and the College of Teachers must shoulder some of the blame. The parents, for quietly trying "to get through the year" and not willing to report gross examples of incompetence and the College of Teachers for only tackling the most egregious of behaviors and maintaining such a low bar of professional conduct that even teachers who have been drunk in classrooms can step over it. A reprimand in these types of cases is not enough. The College should strip the licenses of these incompetents on a far more regular basis. This would at least justify the expense and opulence of the College.
There are over a 110,000 teachers in Ontario and we can all agree the vast, vast majority of them are competent, hard working, conscientious professionals. However, listen to any discussion of public education and you will hear that everyone has had an experience with an incompetent teacher at some point in their time in the education system. This is unacceptable.
It is unacceptable that we take our most vulnerable people, our children, and place them in front of an incompetent for up to six hours a day for an entire school year and we do nothing about it.
I know that the best in our system, our teachers, are sick of our worst. Let's get rid of them.
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