“The Ontario Liberal government has spent $8.5 billion more in education since 2003 with 250,000 fewer students,” PC Education Critic Rob Leone said today, “and they waited until 2014 before even acknowledging a problem exists with our math scores in this province. It’s shameful.”
Leone was also skeptical about the timing of the announcement.
“A $4 million dollar government spending announcement that comes just months before a potential spring election,” said Leone. “It is cynical politics at its worst.”
Over the past month, the Education Minister Liz Sandals and the Liberal government has been criticized for charting the wrong path in math after standardized test scores dropped again in Ontario. On many international comparative measures such as TIMMS math and science scores, results were better when the PCs left office than they are today.
Parents and teachers alike are becoming fed up with the “discovery learning” method and many are asking that math be taught in a more traditional manner. Recent OECD data shows that jurisdictions that adopt a traditional approach see better results, and Leone agrees.
“This government has been in power since 2003 and has been failing students for just as long,” continued Leone. “Parents have complained to me that their kids aren’t learning the times tables any more. We need to get back to basics.”
Leone was also critical of the absence of any commitment to adopt a fair and transparent hiring process for new teachers or to explore whether hiring math specialist teachers would help bring up math scores.
“Why not put the best math teachers in the classroom? There are a lot of really good math teachers out there who are already qualified and who can’t find a job, “concluded Leone. “Instead of this government putting a square peg in a round hole, they should allow principals to hire the best math teacher available to them.”
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