Mental health issues increasing in schools
Time management for principals also on list of nine findings from Ontario survey
Ontario’s schools are seeing an increasing number of students with mental health issues and principals are frustrated they’re spending too much time on just managing their schools rather than working on student and staff development.
Those were two of the nine key findings and recommendations in a survey of more than 1,200 schools from 70 of Ontario’s 72 school boards. The annual survey is conducted by People for Education, an independent organization focusing on the betterment of public education.
“Mental health services are often inaccessible,” said David Cameron, director of research for People for Education.
Among elementary schools, 94 per cent reported they had reached out to local mental health organizations while 100 per cent of secondary schools reported they had done the same.
Twenty six per cent of high school guidance counsellors reported they spent more time on one-on-one counselling regarding mental health issues than anything else. The figure at the elementary level was 20 per cent. “Additional mental health funding has helped boards,” said Emelda Byrne, superintendent of education, student achievement for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board.
“A lot of (the rising numbers) has to do with more awareness and advocating for help.”
Byrne said the Catholic board is using the funding to target students in the intermediate grades. “We’re trying to be proactive in helping students earlier to prevent anxieties from becoming a bigger problem,” Byrne said.
With demand exceeding supply for mental health professionals in Ontario, boards are also adding more guidance counsellors or creating mental health care teams. “The equivalent of eight full time guidance positions were added in the budget for the next (school) year,” said Scott Scantlebury, communications officer for the Greater Essex County District School Board. “They ’ll be assigned a group of schools and travel around to them, much like French specialist teachers.”
Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education, highlighted the problems presented by principals feeling they spend too much time on issues not connected directly to educational development. “Principals have a large impact on their schools,” Kidder said. “They ’re overstretched and they don’t have the time to focus on the things they feel they should.” The survey showed only nine per cent of elementary principals and 13 per cent of their secondary school peers ranked spending time on professional development for staff and improving instructional program as their most time-consuming task.
In contrast, 22 per cent of elementary principals listed managing their school facility as their most time-consuming activity. At the secondary level, 27 per cent of principals said managing staff was their main focus.
“In the last three or four years, we’ve really done a lot of work with principals to make sure they know what to look for in classrooms,” Byrne said. “Learning is the top priority.
“If you have the right teachers in front of the children, you should be able to handle running the rest of the building.”
The survey also found less than half of all Ontario elementary
If you have the right teachers in front of the children, you should be able to handle running the rest of the building.
schools have arts/music teachers. However, local students are much better off than the rest of the province. Virtually every school in both the public and Catholic systems has access to music and art instruction.
Kidder said the creative and critical thinking involved in studying the arts fits well with the broad skills sought by employers. “The new government has expressed interest in economics and one of the drivers of the economy will be graduating people who can fill the jobs that don’t even exist yet,” Kidder said.
“We have to make sure they have the broad skills for any job that comes up.”
In presenting the survey, Kidder framed it as a list of recommendations for the government to focus on in education.
In addition to addressing mental and physical health, school administration, guidance counsellors, the report also called for funding and support for:
Special education
Indigenous education Child care Community liaison support Addressing the inequities in opportunities presented by differentiations in fundraising and school fees.