Ontario: Better ESL tracking, no new cash for schools

[Harold Schiffman]

Better ESL tracking, no new cash for schools

TORONTO (Jun 22, 2007)

The province says schools will have to improve the way they help and track
the progress of students who aren't fluent in English but there won't be any
new cash to help. Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said the new English as
a Second Language policy means schools will have to provide orientation for
new arrivals and their families, improve assessment of their language skills
and increase the reporting of their progress to parents.

Annie Kidder, below, founder of the group People for Education, said the new
policy and stricter rules mean little without more funding. Parents
immigrate to Canada, leaving professional careers behind to drive taxis in
Ontario, because they want to build a better life for their children, Kidder
said yesterday. "We should be making sure that we're providing the programs
their kids need in schools," she added. "In many cases, we're not. We're
really doing a disservice to the hopes and dreams of these parents."


http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1182486697805&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112101662670

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree
with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20070622/e77687b5/attachment.htm>