For Immediate Release: Thursday, November 11, 2021

OSSTF/FEESO reacts to Ministry of Education de-streaming announcement

Today, the Ontario government released a new memorandum – Next Steps for De-Streaming:
Grade 9 Course Codes and Descriptions for the 2022-23 School Year. As a result, beginning in
September 2022, all Grade 9 subjects will be offered in one stream.

According to the Ministry of Education, this is part of their ongoing efforts to ensure all students
can reach their full potential.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) supports a fully-funded
de-streamed academic program in Ontario; however, without assurances that adequate
resources will be provided to support all students in de-streamed classes, OSSTF/FEESO has
significant concerns about today’s announcement.

Once implemented, this change will result in an average increase of 36% in applied level class
sizes for the 2022-2023 school year.

OSSTF/FEESO president, Karen Littlewood says, “we have no evidence that the government
will provide proper funding or smaller class sizes to support de-streamed courses.”
“The government’s silence on how they will fund this program and what investments into
educational supports will be made is very concerning,” added Littlewood.

Once again, the Ford government has announced changes that will affect secondary students
across the province but fails to provide the details necessary to support this drastic change in
program planning and delivery in Ontario’s schools.