Ministry of Education
315 Front Street
14th Floor
Toronto, ON. M7A 0B8
Dear Minister Lecce,
On behalf of the Toronto District School Board, I am writing you in response to your government’s decision to implement new elementary math curriculum for the upcoming school year.
While we are always welcome to curriculum changes that could lead to better learning outcomes for students, the proposed changes to the math curriculum are substantial and will require significant time, collaboration and new resources to be properly implemented. Given the short time-line and the fact that we are still trying to navigate our system through a pandemic and how to safely re-op schools in the fall, we do not believe such changes should be implemented for the new school year.
The health and safety of our school communities is our main priority. As such, we strongly believe that our staff and resources should remain focused on preparing and implementing re-entry plans that will allow for students and staff to safely return to school in September.
Once our re-entry plans are in place and the new school year begins, additional efforts will be required by staff and further funding will also be required to successfully carry-out the plans. This funding would be for such areas like: remote learning, mental health and well-being, staffing resources to address gaps in literacy and numeracy, transitional resources for students with special needs, information technology, internet services and more.
On top of this, many of our priorities outlined in the Multi-Year Strategic Plan have been delayed or postponed due to the complications of COVID-10 and labour distributions. If we have to direct time and resources toward implementing new math curriculum, it will further delay or take focus away from important work like strategies related to combating racism, discrimination and anti-oppression in our school communities. For all of the above reasons, we are asking that the Ministry of Education to delay the implementation of the new math curriculum until such time that school operations are no longer affected by COVID-19.
As always, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you further.
Sincerely,
Robin Pilkey, CPA, CA, ICD.D
Chair, Toronto District School Board