Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra explains the tabled bill that would see sweeping changes to the education system. <\/p>\n
Ontario high school students will soon have their attendance count for a sizable portion of their final grades, one of a set of upcoming changes to how students are assessed.<\/p>\n
Policy changes affecting teacher instruction and student marks in class were among measures announced this week by Education Minister Paul Calandra as he tabled legislation to overhaul school board governance.<\/p>\n
The proposed new measures largely target trustees, who are set to have a reduced role going forward, and school board administration, but Calandra also announced changes that will directly affect classrooms.<\/p>\n
Participation and attendance will count for 15 per cent of final marks for Grades 9 and 10, and 10 per cent in Grades 11 and 12, and written exams will be mandatory on official exam days.<\/p>\n
Calandra said he heard from teachers that declining attendance has been causing classroom management issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t on my radar at all,\u201d he said Tuesday after question period. \u201cI actually still thought attendance and participation was part of the mark, and I realized that for many, many years it had been taken out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martha Hradowy, the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers\u2019 Federation, said she agreed with Calandra\u2019s assertion that student absenteeism has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n
However, she said teachers would rather that happen by increasing resources so students feel supported and attend class, rather than giving grades for attendance in the way Calandra proposes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we\u2019re seeing rising student needs alongside fewer supports, and that\u2019s the real problem the government should be addressing,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor OSSTF, if the goal is better attendance, then the focus needs to be on smaller class sizes, more mental health resources and supports in schools, not new grading rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hradowy said some schools and boards had moved away from giving final exams, and \u201cby and large\u201d teachers support reinstating them.<\/p>\n
When asked if he was providing standardized exam formats, Calandra said he was looking at that but \u201cnot right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said the most urgent problems in education are class sizes and special education and nothing in the legislation helps those underlying issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your school is not a welcoming environment, if your class is too big, if you\u2019re not getting the attention you need, if you have a special need, if school is not working for you because you don\u2019t feel welcome, why are you going to go?\u201d Fraser said.<\/p>\n
Calandra also announced this week that the government intends to mandate the use of approved learning resources, such as lesson plans and student materials, in the way the province already provides an approved list of textbooks. Doing so will ensure consistency, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear this constantly as well, that teachers are being asked to fill in too many of the blanks when it comes to the delivery of the curriculum,\u201d Calandra said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey spend a lot of time creating tests, they spend a lot of time creating a lesson plan, because they\u2019re being forced to fill in the blanks of what has become a very thin curriculum document from the province over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teachers would still be able to use supplementary materials based on student needs, the government said.<\/p>\n
The Elementary Teachers\u2019 Federation of Ontario worries the move could remove the ability of educators to respond to the needs of their individual classrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy centralizing control over which learning resources can be used in classrooms and directing assessment practices, the Ford government is stripping educators of the professional judgment they rely on to meet students\u2019 needs,\u201d the union wrote in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing evidence\u2011based practice with ministerial directives imposes a business\u2011style management structure on public education, eroding the professional expertise that drives high\u2011quality instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ontario Principals\u2019 Council expressed similar concerns about not allowing teachers to use their professional judgment. The principals\u2019 group also said that Calandra making school climate surveys optional will limit access to data on equity and well-being.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ability of partners, including students, to provide anonymous feedback through these tools has provided critical insight for boards in responding to the diverse needs of students and school communities,\u201d the principals wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
Calandra suggested in question period Tuesday that the surveys have so far been of limited use.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen asked what did you do with these surveys, what results have come out of them, there were very few boards that could actually highlight what the results of all of the survey work was,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo boards can still do a survey, it\u2019s not mandatory anymore, but what we would rather see, is results of the work and the funding that we are providing. I want safer schools. I don\u2019t need to know if a school board itself thinks its school is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra explains the tabled bill that would see sweeping changes to the education system.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[549,43,44,11867,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-604537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-ontario-quebec","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}