Additional teacher education spaces providing students with greater access to French-language education
TORONTO — As part of the Ontario government’s plan to train more French teachers, the province is funding an additional 110 French-language teacher education spaces for the 2023-24 academic year. The new spaces at the University of Ottawa and the Toronto-based Université de l’Ontario français will help address teacher shortages for schools in Toronto and Eastern-Ontario.
“We are taking meaningful action to address the shortage of French-language teachers in Ontario,” said Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities. “By adding more French-language teacher education spaces, we’re providing students with more choice and increased access to high-quality French-language postsecondary education, helping prepare them to succeed in meaningful and rewarding careers.”
“Our government is ensuring a strong and promising future for our Francophonie by increasing Ontario’s capacity to train new French-language teachers,” said Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Francophone Affairs. “Education is a vital priority for every francophone family in the province. We share their determination to meet the needs of their children and to support them directly within their communities. We look forward to soon welcoming all these new graduating teachers to schools in Toronto and Eastern Ontario!”
“Our government is taking action to tackle a decade long national French teacher shortage by investing in our plan to further recruit and retain highly-qualified French-language educators in Ontario,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “Together by adding an additional 110 teacher education spaces in our postsecondary schools and reducing certification timelines by 50 per cent for internally trained educators, we are helping to secure new educators and create new pathways to get more qualified teachers supporting French-language education across Ontario.”
This investment enhances Ontario’s four-year French Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy launched in June 2021. The multi-pronged strategy will help recruit, train and retain French-language and French as a Second Language teachers in both the French-language and English-language school systems.
This initiative is part of the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Minority-Language Education and Second Official Language Instruction 2020-21 to 2022-23 and the Canada–Ontario Agreement on the Establishment of the Université de l’Ontario Français 2019–20 to 2026–27. Funding in these agreements allows for federal and provincial supports to enhance and establish French-language programs.