Satisfaction with Ontario schools declining

Satisfaction with Ontario’s school system and teachers is on the wane, a new survey says.

The University of Toronto’s faculty of education has released its 20th public opinion survey, which found that “half of the public are somewhat or very satisfied with the school system in general.

“This represents the continuation of a decline registered in our 2015 survey … we also see the first substantial decline in satisfaction with teachers’ performance,” says the report from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

In 1980, 51 per cent of the public was satisfied with the school system. In 1998, during the tumultuous years under then- premier Mike Harris, that hit a low of 44 per cent. During the Liberal years, satisfaction rose to a high of 65 per cent in 2012, and was 60 per cent in 2015.

Among the public, satisfaction with the job teachers are doing was 62 per cent in 1998, and hit a high of 70 per cent in 2012. It’s now 53 per cent. (Among parents, the rate is slightly higher at 58 per cent.)

Co-author Doug Hart said he sees the result as more of a “levelling off” than any indication of serious concerns.

Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario — the country’s largest teacher union — said the lower ratings are likely because of “parents’ concerns for their kids’ education, which reflects on teachers.