OSSTF endorsing the New Democrats
Posted Jun 4, 2018 05:31:25 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The union representing Ontario’s secondary school teachers are throwing their support behind the NDP for Thursday’s vote.
President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) Harvey Bischof tells 570 NEWS there was “no question that the NDP election platform aligned with ours in a number of key areas.”
Of note, he says that includes the NDP’s support for the work educational workers do “across the education spectrum up to, and including university.”
Bischof makes mention of the NDP’s pledge to address the shortfall in funding for capital expenditures, as well as the promise to eliminate EQAO testing.
On the testing, Bischof says a mass assessment and consensus-based testing is “unproductive” and “wasteful of resources.”
“We’ve known for a long time that the most authentic assessment of our students’ work and abilities is that which is done in the classroom on a regular basis,” he said.
“As opposed to every standardized test, which doesn’t really provide you any valuable information about individual students.”
When asked why not the Liberals or Progressive Conservatives, Bischof simply said “neither has a platform that aligns as well with our vision of publicly-funded education as the NDP’s platform does.”
