Aims of Ford Government's e-Learning Initiatives Exposed

The Ontario government has claimed that it wants to bring in e-learning courses, which will be mandatory for students to graduate, as a way of preparing them for the modern world and for post-secondary education. However, on January 13, the Toronto Star reported that it had obtained confidential documents that clearly reveal that the overall plan of the Ontario government is to use e-learning to cut funding to school boards and to sell e-learning courses to other jurisdictions and to international students. This includes creating a new entity to maintain and create a catalogue of "gold standard" online courses in English and French so that "maximum revenue generation may be realized."

The plan, directed by the Ministry of Education, is "to develop [a] business model to make available and market Ontario's online learning system to out-of-province and international students and examine feasible options for selling licensing rights to courses/content to other jurisdictions."

Under the heading "cost saving and revenue generation," the document noted that "the system does not generate any revenue for the province" and warned "costs for creation of online learning tools and resources may be duplicated across multiple delivery partners." This itself is pure disinformation. Educated youth generate billions in revenue for the businesses they work for. This must not only be recognized but new arrangements are needed to realize the wealth created through education as public revenue.

The plan showed that the Ford government had originally thought to make e-learning courses optional while at the same time slashing funding to public boards, essentially forcing them to gradually offer a minimum number of e-learning courses that would increase over time.

The government did not dispute the authenticity of the internal document, which is not dated but was written between March 16, 2019 and summer's end, according to time references in the text.

"We remain committed to building a world-leading online learning system to strengthen Ontario students' competencies in the modern economy," Education Minister Stephen Lecce's office said.

"We are proceeding with developing and implementing a made-in-Ontario program that will ensure student flexibility, technological literacy and a vast selection of courses, through two mandatory courses over the lifetime of a student's high school career," the statement added.

The confidential document stated the plan was for the education ministry to "closely monitor uptake of online learning over the first four years of implementation, assess the feasibility of making online learning mandatory for credit accumulation" toward an Ontario secondary school diploma.

"School boards will be required to meet progressively increasing minimum targets for student enrollment in online learning courses; optional enrollment at the individual student level," the plan stated.

The plan calls for $34.8 million less in funding to school boards in the school year starting September 2020, $55.8 million less in 2021, $56.7 million less in 2022 and $57.4 million less in the 2023-2024 school year.

After that, there would be "continued cost saving of $57.4 million annually with full catalogue of online 'gold standard' courses," the plan predicted.

This article was published in

Number 1 - January 15, 2020

Article Link:
Aims of Ford Government's e-Learning Initiatives Exposed

    

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