Ontario Boosting Opportunities for Students' Long Term Success

Ministry of Education

New Focus on Equity Will Better Support Students in Exploring Educational and Career Pathways

Mississauga, ON – September 7, 2017

Ontario is making the education system fairer and more inclusive for all students by identifying and eliminating systemic barriers, and better supporting students in exploring pathways to work, college, apprenticeship or university.

Mitzie Hunter, Minister of Education, was in Mississauga today to release Ontario’s Education Equity Action Plan, a new three-year strategy to reduce systemic barriers and ensure that all students in Ontario can reach their full potential. The strategy includes:
•Introducing a renewed approach to Grade 9 in which all students are better able to explore pathways to work, college, apprenticeship, and university.
•Identifying and addressing disparities in suspension, expulsion, and exclusion rates amongst certain student populations.
•Enhancing other school and classroom practices to ensure that they reflect and respond to student and staff diversity, including more culturally relevant teaching resources, curriculum, and assessment.
•Enhancing diversity in hiring and promotion, and tying accountability for equity to the performance appraisals of principals, vice-principals and directors, to ensure that the diversity of teachers, staff and school system leaders reflects the diversity of students.
•Collecting and analyzing demographic data to more precisely address the systemic barriers to student success through data-informed decision-making.
•Applying an equity, inclusion and human rights perspective to internal organizational structures, policies, programs and practices.

The equity plan will address unintentional consequences of existing structures, policies, programs and practices that may disadvantage certain student populations, including racialized students, students experiencing poverty, Indigenous students, newcomers to Canada, students who identify as LGBTQ and Two-Spirited, children and youth in care, religious minorities, French language minorities, students with disabilities and students with special education needs.

Supporting equity for all students, educators and staff is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.