EQAO salary could be put to better use

Re Do the math: Pay rises from $3,600 to $140,000, Feb. 20

How can the creation of a full-time chair of the EQAO, the provincial education testing agency that was never required, be in line with the Ford’s election platform of making the government efficient?

The agency already has a CEO who speaks for the agency and provides “strategic leadership.” Why is it necessary to have a full-time chair to do likewise?

One gets the impression that jobs are being created to reward supporters. So much for trimming the fat in government. Salmon Lee, Mississauga Of all the distractions that upset conditions conducive to learning in our schools, the most intrusive are the EQAO tests. Essentially, all they do is interrupt good teaching and threaten students. Teachers use tests to check their own effectiveness. Tests are also used to reward student learning.

EQAO testing has no pedagogical application. Education critics are lined up to condemn them. Not one voice is raised in support. Inevitably, a complete list of schools will be published. Excellent schools with recent refugee children will score below others. No need to explain.

The Ford regime’s 400 per cent increase in the salary to the chair of the EQAO fiefdom would best be spent on curricular enrichment. Hugh McKechnie, Newmarket Let all Ontarians watch and see how well Cameron Montgomery earns his salary. Otherwise, this fish stinks. Norm Ferguson, Richmond Hill