Ontario considering change to length of teachers’ college, documents suggest

A classroom at an elementary school in Toronto pictured on Jan. 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — The Ontario government is considering shortening the length of teachers’ college in order to address a worsening shortage of educators, documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest.

A freedom-of-information request on teacher supply and demand came back with research and jurisdictional scans the Ministry of Education conducted last year on the supply issue and the length of initial teacher education programs.

Highlighted in the summary of the document on teachers’ college are findings that longer programs do not make better teachers.

“There is little evidence that the amount of course work in ITE (initial teacher education) makes a difference in teachers’ effectiveness when they enter the profession,” the document says.

Real in-class experience, however, does appear to make a difference.

“Literature research shows that teachers who complete longer practicums feel better prepared and are more likely to stay in the profession,” the document says.

Ontario teachers’ college programs are typically two years, divided into four semesters, but that has not always been the case.

A decade ago, Ontario had a teacher surplus, with an unemployment rate of nearly 40 per cent for teachers in their first year after becoming certified.

In 2015, the then-Liberal government made teachers’ college two years instead of one and admission rates plummeted from more than 7,600 in 2011 to 4,500 in 2021, according to the Ontario College of Teachers.

Now, early-career unemployment is at “statistically negligible levels,” according to the college, and there is a widely acknowledged shortage of teachers set to get worse.

Other ministry documents previously obtained by The Canadian Press through a separate freedom-of-information request said that the gap between the number of needed teachers and available teachers is expected to widen starting in 2027.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Paul Calandra said his focus will be on ensuring the best possible outcomes for students, including proper staffing levels.

“The minister is well aware of the changes the previous government made to teachers’ college programs and has asked the ministry to report back on the best way forward to ensure student success,” Justine Teplycky wrote in a statement.

The Ontario Principals’ Council and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario are among the groups that have called for a return to one-year programs.

“We’re finding that the cost has become a factor, a barrier for many people to actually commit that length of time to the program,” said Karen Brown, president of ETFO.

“The two-year program, there isn’t actually much more learning taking place...So really, people are saying, ‘What is the purpose of the second year?’”

The Ontario Federation of Teachers, which advocates for the province’s more than 160,000 teachers, published a paper last year on initial teacher education programs and urged evidence-based change that follows consultations with teachers, but did not call for a specific timeline.

“In terms of program length, it is worth acknowledging that the length of time in which the program is delivered is of less importance than the attainment of the desired outcomes that every graduating teacher should acquire,” the federation wrote.

“That said, we believe that the current length of Ontario’s ITE programs represents a significant barrier for many.”

The federation spoke out against the change to a two-year program, taking the position that three semesters should be delivered over a 12-month period and should include 100 days of practicum. It warned that the four-semester program would lead to teacher shortages, especially in high-needs subjects and regions.

A decade later, the ministry says there is a teacher shortage, particularly for French, technological education, and Indigenous teachers and in northern parts of the province.

The ministry documents list the main factors as increasing enrolment by about 180,000 students over an unspecified time frame, growing rates of retirement – with about 7,800 teachers expected to retire by 2030-31 – and “no immediate change to teacher education in Ontario.”

Six out of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories have four-semester programs, including Ontario, the document says. The international range is between two and four semesters.

All jurisdictions in Canada except the Northwest Territories are experiencing teacher shortages, the document says, and provinces and territories have adopted various strategies to address them. That includes funding for scholarship programs, more teacher training spaces, recognition of foreign credentials, student loan forgiveness, bursaries, and streamlined certification processes.

In recent years Ontario has allowed some teacher candidates to work as supply teachers in response to shortages. But Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said that isn’t an ideal or long-term solution.

“We’re going to need a lot of people to fill these jobs, but they shouldn’t be in the classroom in front of students until they finish their training,” she said.

“If the training program needs to change, that should change, but we’re putting a Band-Aid on a solution and asking people who — they’re not really unqualified, but they’re not yet qualified — to come in and to solve the problem, as opposed to having the government look at what the issues are in education.”

OSSTF and other teachers’ unions have for years said that working conditions are a cause of teacher shortages.

The president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities said the post-secondary institutions are working to “compress and streamline” teachers’ education, and suggested that universities where teachers earn their credentials do not want to see programs shortened.

“The skills and knowledge that teachers need to develop in response to changing technology, social and mental health issues, and to foster student success is only becoming more complex, not less,” Steve Orsini wrote in a statement.

“Anything that would reduce the preparation our teachers receive could affect the quality of education and future success of students.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press