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Elementary teachers to withdraw services, but remain in classrooms

Public school elementary teachers will begin job action Monday – but teachers will remain in the classrooms.

In a media statement Tuesday, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) said its members in 32 school boards across the province will begin a withdrawal of administrative services.

An ETFO bulletin sent to members notes teachers will not take part in standardized testing activities, preparing report cards, filling in for principals or attending staff meetings. Early childhood educators and support workers are not participating in the job action.

“We are not going to comment on strike action details publicly until we’ve had an opportunity to communicate with all our members this week,” said ETFO President Sam Hammond. “What’s important to realize is that the government and Ontario Pubic School Boards Association (OPSBA) want to layer on more bureaucracy into the education system, and compromise the ability of teachers to do what’s best for our students.”

Among the union’s concerns are proposals that give principals the right to direct what teachers do during their prep time, as well as teachers’ loss of power to decide what diagnostic tests are given to students. Boards argue students need consistency in testing from year to year to monitor progress.

“OPSBA wants the ability to determine how teachers teach,” added Hammond. “The person in the education system who knows your child best – your child’s teacher – would no longer be able to develop an instructional plan based on your child’s specific abilities and needs. That doesn’t make any sense when it comes to what’s best for students.”

ETFO is the country’s largest teacher union, with 76,000 members. A strike or job action would affect more than 817,000 elementary school students across the province.

Meanwhile, some 67,000 public high school students are out of school while their teachers hit the picket lines in Durham Region and Sudbury in April, and, on Monday in Peel. Other areas targeted for high school teacher strikes are Halton, Waterloo, Ottawa and Thunder Bay.

The province’s English Catholic teachers won’t be in a legal strike position until mid-June at the earliest.

Filed Under: Local News

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