[LINK] "Ontario to overhaul teachers' college, halve admissions"

[rfmcdonald]

The CBC report touches upon the advantages and disadvantages of Ontario's planned reform of its education programs.

Aspiring teachers in Ontario will soon face a drastically different landscape than their predecessors.

They will be competing for half the number of spaces in teachers’ college, taking twice as long to earn their degree, and spending double the number of days in classroom placements — all before joining the glut of teachers looking for a job in Ontario.

The changes, spearheaded by the governing Liberals, are meant to curb the oversupply of new instructors — all of whom must have earned a post-secondary degree before applying to teachers' college. According to the Ministry of Education, roughly 9,000 new teachers graduate in Ontario each year, but only about 6,000 teachers are needed.

[. . .]

[S]ome aspiring teachers, like Ryerson graduate Colin McKay, fear that the changes may impede those who want to be educated but not necessarily employed in Ontario.

"We may be producing too many teachers for the domestic market, but a lot of the excess is being exported to the rest of the world," he said, adding that Canadian credentials are prized in other countries.

McKay, who is heading to teach English in Japan this summer, said restricting admissions with the aim of raising quality may only "hurt production, and hurt aspiring teachers."