BY KEITH LACEY
Laurentian University will offer a bachelor of education program in English starting this fall.
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The school is thrilled it has obtained initial accreditation from the Ontario College of Teachers, which will allow Laurentian to accept its first Bachelor of Education students in less than four months, said Judith Woodsworth, president of Laurentian, Thursday.
Laurentian will be only the second university in Canada to offer a teachersÂ? college on the same campus for students in both of CanadaÂ?s official languages.
Confirmation of the English teachersÂ? college comes within a 72-hour period where Laurentian officials announced the formation of a co-operative agreement with College Boreal to offer a French-language nursing degree program starting this fall. On Wednesday, Premier Ernie Eves announced Laurentian will reap the benefits of $95.3 million in funding for the Northern Ontario Medical School.
Â?These announcements show that all of our dreams are coming true for Laurentian University and the community we serve,Â? said Woodsworth.
LaurentianÂ?s bachelor of education program (B.Ed) is a four or five-year program taken concurrently with an undergraduate degree. The program will concentrate on English, history, geography, Native studies, biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and human kinetics.
For this September, the program will admit qualified candidates who have already applied for admission into the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Physical Health and Education programs.
Students currently completing their first year of an honours program at Laurentian may also be considered for transfer in the program.
Administrators project some 200 students will be admitted to the program in September 2004. Since existing schools of education in Ontario to not have the capacity to admit all qualified students required over the next 15 years, the program is expected to become one of LaurentianÂ?s most desired programs, said Woodsworth.
The demand for teachers across Ontario is expected to increase significantly over the next several years, she said.
Anne-Marie Mahwiney, Pat Falter and Doug Parker all played key leadership roles, she said.
Mawhiney, LaurentianÂ?s dean of professional schools, said the announcement completes months of hard work by too many people to mention at Laurentian and municipal government leaders and other partners.
By the year 2010, more than 56,000 Ontario teachers will be eligible to retire and almost 50 per cent of English-language teachers in northeastern Ontario will be retiring within the next seven years, she
said.
