By Rick Pusiak
There will be something missing next month at high school graduation ceremonies right across Ontario.
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Elizabeth Witmer |
Because of the OPSEU strike and the swearing in of new Education Minister Elizabeth Witmer, diplomas won?t be ready in time for distribution.
Education documents such as diplomas require the minister?s signature to be official and have to be up to date before being sent to the printers.
It could be the end of August or early September before the documents reach secondary schools.
While the situation can be troubling to some, and an administrative issue for schools that are closing, efforts are being made to address the issue.
Northeastern Secondary School principal Anna Barsanti says schools slated for closure are being put in a special folder at the Ministry of Education and every effort made to expedite the mailing of the diplomas.
Graduating students from Northeastern will have the opportunity to pick up their diplomas at a designated school or the document will be mailed to their homes.
The day of commencement a commemorative document with the names of graduating students will be given to potential graduates.
The situation has incensed Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci who fired off an angry letter to the education minister.
Bartolucci says the students who are graduating have spent the last several years being treated as Tory experiments for education reform and massive funding cuts.
Now they are getting what amounts to a final slap in the face by not getting diplomas on time.
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Rick Bartolucci |
?It started for (students) in Grade 9 and they?ve only experienced upheaval, decreased extra curricular activities because of the way the Tories wanted to go after teachers, a shortage of textbooks because of funding cuts,? says the MPP.
?They?ve experienced greater sizes in classrooms?and now the one opportunity the government has to let these kids graduate with a little bit of honour, they don?t even get their diplomas.?
Bartolucci says this proves the Conservative experiment with education failed miserably. ?With all the resources in the Ministry of Education don?t tell me that you cannot process high school diplomas using the technology that?s present in that ministry?
