Ontario education: 1)Make teaching more attractive for tradespeople, teachers’ federation tells Ontario;2) (Updated) Ontario giving elementary teachers $750 cards to buy classroom supplies

1)Make teaching more attractive for tradespeople, teachers’ federation tells Ontario

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones, March 12, 2026

Ontario must make entering the teaching profession more attractive to skilled tradespeople if it hopes to address a long-standing shortage of technological education teachers and ultimately get more students into the trades, a teachers organization says.

The Ontario Teachers’ Federation, which represents all teachers in publicly funded schools, is putting forward a list of recommendations to the provincial government that aim to make a move from the trades to teaching make financial sense.

“The trouble is sometimes incentivizing those in the trades to get into the education system,” OTF president Chris Cowley said in an interview.

“That can be a challenge because a lot of times, it would mean that they take a pay cut.”

Ontario has been grappling with an overall teacher shortage since not long after the former Liberal government doubled the length of teachers’ college from one year to two, and Ministry of Education documents in recent years have highlighted particular shortages of French and technological education teachers.

During the 2023-24 academic year, the most recent figures available, just 365 tech ed teacher candidates were enrolled at English faculties of education across the province, according to the OTF. Another 25 were enrolled at the only French-language program.

It is critical to ensure there are enough qualified tech ed teachers if the government hopes to achieve its goals of boosting the skilled trades workforce, Cowley said.

“If this is a priority for the government, they should make it a priority for when the rubber hits the road in our schools,” he said.

“I think (the government has) good expectations from some of their policies, nobody’s questioning that, or the need for more tech ed or for more skilled trades, but the resources need to be put in place on the back end to make sure that the infrastructure is there so that we can implement these changes in schools.”

The government made a regulation change in 2024 allowing teachers with general credentials to teach new mandatory courses on technology and the skilled trades.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Paul Calandra said that gave schools more flexibility.

“This helps ensure more students have access to hands-on learning and skilled trades opportunities in their schools,” Emma Testani wrote in a statement.

She also noted that the government is putting $55.8 million toward training up to 2,600 new teachers by 2027, including expanded seats in technological education.

The OTF says the solution to an overall shortage of tech ed teachers is not a reduction in their necessary qualifications, as they teach specialized subject matter and need expertise, particularly when health and safety risks are far greater than in general classes.

Currently, technological education teachers need at least five years of work experience in their field or a five-year combination of work experience and post-secondary education. That should not be reduced, for example to three years, the OTF argues, since students can now leave high school after Grade 10 for an apprenticeship and they could have three years of experience by age 19.

Instead, the government should boost funding so more faculties of education could offer technological education programs that allow teacher candidates to study and work at the same time, the OTF says. Five schools currently offer the multi-session format that has the tech teacher candidates take education foundations and methods courses, followed by a two-week practicum, then they get a transitional teaching certificate.

That way, people who are established in their trades careers do not have to give up earning a salary for two years while they study to become a teacher, the OTF argues.

The government should also look at extending a program like its Learn and Stay Grant to tech ed teacher candidates, the teachers’ federation recommends. The program covers the cost of tuition, books and supplies for students enrolled in some nursing, paramedic and medical laboratory technology programs in underserved areas.

The OTF also has a recommendation for itself. The federation should encourage the unions involved in collective bargaining – coming this year – “to recognize relevant trade experience for salary grid placement with the goal of achieving consistency across all Ontario school boards,” it wrote in a recent position paper.

2) (Updated) Ontario giving elementary teachers $750 cards to buy classroom supplies

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones and Liam Casey, March 11, 2026.

Ontario elementary school teachers will be getting $750 purchasing cards starting in the next school year for classroom supplies, Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday.

Ford said he has on numerous occasions encountered teachers at the dollar store who were buying supplies using their own money, and they shouldn’t have to do that.

“The days of teachers having to put their hands in their own pockets to pay for school supplies, those days are done,” he said at a press conference about the $66-million fund.

“I’m just so proud,” Ford added later. “I think this is the greatest thing I think we’ve ever done for public education.”

Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president David Mastin said teachers will be pleased to see the investment in classroom supplies, but the government shouldn’t toot its own horn too much, as having classrooms well stocked with tissues and pencils should just be a given.

“The government is trying to make us believe that this is a gift that’s being given prior to what is going to be probably a very contentious round of central bargaining,” he said. 

“We shouldn’t even be talking about this. This should be a foregone conclusion.”

Education Minister Paul Calandra said the ministry does provide funding that boards use for classroom supplies.

“There are some resources that have been given to our boards to provide funding, on average about $300, but it doesn’t always get to the teachers,” he said. 

The province is setting up a website through which homeroom teachers can make their purchases of supplies such as arts and crafts materials, stationery and paper products, posters and classroom decor, and paper towels and tissues. Those materials will come at a reasonable cost, due to the bulk purchasing power of the province, Calandra said.

Teachers can carry over unused portions of their $750.

The government will send teachers a survey Wednesday so they can give input on which supplies they would like to be available through the purchasing website, he said.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the website won’t provide teachers with what they actually need.

“There’s no website that is going to get that young girl in school who needs an (educational assistant) – they can’t click on that,” he said.

“They can’t click on making a class size smaller.”

Calandra has been making waves in the year since he became education minister, putting eight school boards under government supervision and raising the possibility of eliminating the role of trustees at English public boards.

He said Wednesday that he has not yet brought a final plan on trustees or school board governance to the premier or cabinet, but that the eight boards are unlikely to have their supervision lifted any time soon.

Officials from school boards, teachers’ unions, disability advocacy groups and others connected to the education system gathered separately Wednesday calling on Calandra to consult with them before proceeding with governance changes.

“The lack of certainty about school board elections is creating immediate instability for the upcoming election period,” said Kathleen Woodcock, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association. 

“We’re here to invite the government to work with us to strengthen public education, develop stronger public policy together and maintain the trust our communities place in our world-class education system.”

Debbie King, chair of a provincial Black Trustees’ Caucus, said trustees provide a direct connection to the communities they serve.

“We bring lived experience, professional experience that’s very valuable in representing the issues that are affecting our children and our communities directly,” she said.

Calandra said he is not interested in hearing from trustees advocating to maintain their positions.

“I would suggest to all of those vested interests, the trustee associations, put first students, put parents first, and then give me your advice based on that,” he said. 

“If it’s just about saving your job, that’s a non-starter. If it’s about how we can make the system better, then we’ll listen. But it has to be about student achievement, full stop. Without that, then no, I’m just simply not going to listen.”

David Lepofsky, a disability advocate and chair of the Toronto District School Board’s special education advisory committee, said eliminating trustees removes an avenue parents use to pursue accommodations for their children’s disabilities.

If there are problems with the education system, the status quo and abolishing trustees are not the only two options, Lepofsky said.

“Mend it, don’t end it,” he said.  “Let’s find that reasonable middle. Let’s put on hold takeovers of more boards right now. Let’s give a chance for all of us to have some input, and Ontarians to have a say, and let’s give those boards under supervision an orderly, predictable path to restore local democracy.”