TORONTO, ON – November 11, 2021 — Today, the Ontario government released a new memorandum -
Next Steps for De-Streaming: Grade 9 Course Codes and Descriptions for the 2022-23 School Year. As a result, beginning in September 2022, all Grade 9 subjects will be offered in one stream.
According to the Ministry of Education, this is part of their ongoing efforts to ensure all students can reach their full potential.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) supports a fully-funded de-streamed academic program in Ontario; however, without assurances that adequate resources will be provided to support all students in de-streamed classes, OSSTF/FEESO has significant concerns about today’s announcement.
Once implemented, this change will result in an average increase of 36% in applied level class sizes for the 2022-2023 school year.
OSSTF/FEESO president, Karen Littlewood says, “we have no evidence that the government will provide proper funding or smaller class sizes to support de-streamed courses.”
“The government’s silence on how they will fund this program and what investments into educational supports will be made is very concerning,” added Littlewood.
Once again, the Ford government has announced changes that will affect secondary students across the province but fails to provide the details necessary to support this drastic change in program planning and delivery in Ontario’s schools.
OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has over 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.