A World-Class Education System
The Peterson Liberals entered office with an ambitious agenda to prepare the province and its people for the 21st century. At the heart of that agenda was setting up young people for success in a rapidly changing world through strong public education. Sean Conway and Chris Ward would transform early learning programs, reorient primary education towards problem solving, and introduce new secondary skills training for an entire generation.
Separate School Funding
On June 12, 1984, Progressive Conservative (PC) Premier Bill Davis announced he would fully fund Ontario’s Roman Catholic separate school system for grades 11 to 12 and the Ontario Academic Credit (OAC), completing the partial funding of separate schools that he had begun as Minister of Education in the 1960s.
Instead of introducing legislation to implement the policy, Davis announced his retirement from politics on October 8, 1984. His successor, PC Premier Frank Miller, also declined to introduce legislation to complete the promised funding extension to Catholic schools.
After the Miller government fell and the Peterson government took office, newly appointed Liberal Education Minister Sean Conway quickly introduced the government’s very first piece of legislation. It amended the Education Act to extend full funding to Catholic schools. After extensive public hearings, the legislation was passed in June 1986.
Expanding Kindergarten
Once it had settled the separate school funding issue, the Peterson government quickly got to work improving early childhood education. The Liberals saw it as one of the most pressing social and economic issues facing Ontario families and a key ingredient of preparing the province for the new millennium.
To set children up for success from the earliest ages, Ministers of Community and Social Services John Sweeney and Charles Beer significantly expanded kindergarten by requiring all schools to offer half-day junior and senior kindergarten, as well as full-day senior kindergarten, where space permitted.
Rebalancing Opportunity in Elementary and Secondary School
The government’s second Education Minister, Chris Ward, set out to make the transition from elementary to secondary school smoother for students and to tackle the stubborn high school dropout rate that was stalling the future prospects of too many young people across Ontario.
The government restructured the curriculum to focus on core skills and progressive problem-solving in grades 7 to 9 and on specialized learning in preparation for the workforce and post-secondary education in grades 10 to 12/OAC. Part of this shift included ending the practice of streaming – grouping students by ability – in the transition years of grades 7 to 9. The practice of streaming had long been in use in Ontario’s education system, despite little research support.
In reviewing the practice, the government found it often had a negative effect on students, with different course tracks receiving a different quality of education and poor and racialized students disproportionately being placed in lower track courses. These findings were supported by the 1988 Select Committee on Education and the Radwanski Report, Ontario Study of the Relevance of Education and the Issue of Dropouts (1987).
The skills specialization made possible by streaming was instead deferred until grades 10 to 12/OAC, when students could build on the foundational skills learned during their transition years into high school. The specialization offered in higher grades gave students a running start in the next phase of their lives as they enrolled in post-secondary education or entered the workforce.
In addition to these curriculum changes, Ward funded 12 pilot projects to improve student retention and decrease the dropout rate. He also allocated funding for 20 more pilots supporting access to employment through co-op programs to help prepare students for the working world.
In 1989, in response to a recommendation by the Teacher Education Review Steering Committee, Ward announced the creation of the Ontario Council for Teacher Education and the Centre for Teacher Education. The goal of the Council and the Centre was to enhance the quality of teacher education at both the undergraduate and career levels, thereby improving the quality of education students received in Ontario.
Supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
To ensure no student was left behind, Ward also launched a wide-ranging review of programs for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in Ontario. Ward was inspired by a May 1988 resolution moved by NDP MPP Richard Johnston that asked the government to commit to a “major overhaul of provincial policies and practices concerning the education of deaf people in the province of Ontario.”
Ward committed to creating an internal review committee composed of educators already working with Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in Ontario. Alongside it, he also committed to an external, independent review by experts in Deaf education from within and beyond Ontario. He also created an advisory group comprised of members of the Deaf education community and the Deaf community itself.
As he announced the review, Ward stated, “It is my intention to use the findings for a single, cohesive purpose: to improve deaf education in Ontario and maintain our leadership in providing the best possible facilities and programs for hearing-impaired children.”
Progress was made quickly, and when the Ministry of Education reported back in November 1988, Johnston rose in the legislative chamber and stated, “The last line of my resolution from May 5 was, ‘That the Ministry of Education report to the Legislature by November 1, 1988, on these initiatives.’ My God, I never imagined it would be on time, let alone come through with this kind of review.”
Johnston matched Ward’s instinct to rise above partisanship by adding, “This is a great day for the deaf and hearing-impaired in Ontario. It is a rare thing that I get up and make a statement commending the government for its action without any equivocation.”
Preparing Young People for the Global Economy
The Peterson government also modernized Ontario’s education system to help prepare students for the changing economy they would soon lead. One of the ways it did so was by expanding French and heritage-language education in the province, helping Ontario’s future workers gain a competitive advantage in the increasingly multilingual global economy.
The expansion of French education was an important step forward under the French Languages Services Act, which required ministries and government agencies to respect French-language rights in Ontario and to implement a range of services offered in French.
During Second Reading of the Act, Bernard Grandmaître, Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs, stated, “I am convinced we have succeeded in giving a strong guarantee of French-language rights and in designing a practical and realistic system for the delivery of government services in French.”
In 1988, Ward tabled legislation to create a French-language school board for Ottawa-Carleton, the first of its kind in the province. The school board allowed Franco-Ontarian voters to shape their children’s educational environment and elect French-speaking trustees to act on their behalf. Today, there are 12 French-language school boards in Ontario.
The Peterson government did not stop at offering French-language educational opportunities. Ward also introduced the option to enroll in heritage-language classes in elementary schools, if requested by 25 or more students within a given board.
School boards were given permission to offer these classes after school, in the evenings, on weekends, or through an extended-day program, and students could enroll in classes at school boards other than their own. The Ministry of Education also provided funds to help school boards deliver in-service training programs for heritage-language staff.
When Ward introduced the heritage-language program in the legislature, he stated, “Our decision to make heritage languages mandatory clearly indicates that this government respects and encourages the multicultural nature of our society.” He concluded his remarks by stating, “These initiatives are at the very heart of my ministry’s role in this government’s commitment to multiculturalism in Ontario.”
Charles Beer, then the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education, added that heritage-language education, “Will help us in opening up many other doors, perhaps a number of doors that we are not even aware of as yet in terms of the international community. The more we have people who are able to speak a variety of languages, that has a real economic impact for the future.” The heritage-language policy enabled over 100,000 Ontario students to study 62 languages during the Peterson years.
The Peterson Education Legacy
The Peterson years transformed public education into a continuous engine for social and economic progress. Expanded kindergarten provided new early learning opportunities, systemic inequities caused by early-grade streaming were eliminated, and new educational opportunities were introduced, such as the study of heritage languages.
Taken together, these advancements sent a clear signal from the Peterson government that every student deserved and would receive a solid educational foundation as a springboard into the 21st-century economy. The policies of this era cemented education as the most vital infrastructure a province can build and formed a modern governing philosophy that continues to underpin Ontario’s identity as a global leader in learning and innovation today.
To learn more about the Peterson Government’s record on childcare and early learning, visit the article on that topic here.
To learn more about the Peterson Government’s expansion of separate school funding, watch the video interview with Minister Sean Conway on that topic here.
