Fair hiring practices ensure most qualified and experienced teachers get jobs

TORONTO, Aug. 31, 2012 /CNW/ - Catholic teachers are about to enter into a new era in schools this fall that will provide transparent and fair hiring practices for occasional teacher positions to ensure that board-screened teachers who are the most qualified and experienced are in front of students.

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), recently reached between OECTA and the government, job hiring processes are based on a teacher's qualifications and experience, and not on family connections or seniority alone.

"Catholic school boards retain full responsibility for the hiring of teachers," says OECTA President Kevin O'Dwyer, "and will select from a board-approved list of candidates who meet the criteria.

"Trustees and school administrators insist on providing inaccurate information about the MoU", adds O'Dwyer, "in an effort to maintain secretive and preferential hiring practices, which is a disservice to the public."

The MoU ensures the process used to hire teachers is fully transparent and fair for teachers, trustees, parents and the public, and will bring an end to longstanding problems of cronyism and nepotism that exist in some Catholic boards.

"Hopefully the MoU will make things better," says a teacher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of even fewer job offers. "I've been a qualified teacher for seven years, I have taken several Additional Qualification (AQ) courses and I know that I've been passed over for jobs by teachers with less experience and qualifications. It's common knowledge among teachers here that the board hires in this manner."

To read more about the provisions in the MoU and OECTA's backgrounders on fair hiring practices and student assessment, visit www.oecta.on.ca

OECTA represents the 45,000 professional women and men who teach all grades in publicly funded English Catholic schools in Ontario.

SOURCE: Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association

Kevin O'Dwyer,
President of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association
416-400-8352
[email protected]