A committee of Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustees voted on Wednesday night to advance a motion to ask the provincial government to create a mandatory equity, diversity and anti-racism certification for all Ontario teachers.
The motion — passed unanimously at the program and school services committee meeting — called on TDSB board chair Neethan Shan to send a letter to the Ministry of Education and the Ontario College of Teachers advocating for the mandatory certification.
It will now go to a vote of all TDSB trustees at a board meeting on Jan. 22.
The motion was put forward by TDSB student trustee Angelika Bell, who is one of three student trustees elected by the board’s 240,000 students.
In her remarks on Wednesday, Bell said the certification would better equip teachers to engage with the discussions about race and identity that students are already having.
She said the lack of such skills was apparent after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
In its wake, Bell said students felt “grief, fear and confusion,” and were not adequately supported by teachers to discuss their perspectives in the classroom.
The student trustee acknowledged that talking about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is challenging, but said it’s misguided to take a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach toward such subjects in Ontario schools.
On Wednesday, Bell said the proposal for a DEI certification has received support from the Ontario Public School Board Association’s Black Trustees Caucus, an advocacy group of Black school board trustees from across Ontario.
Trustees unanimously support motion
Trustee Alexis Dawson (Davenport and Spadina—Fort York) told TorontoToday on Thursday that she supports the motion because she believes the certification will improve student achievement and engagement.
“There’s a lot of disinformation out there that DEI is coming at the expense of ‘back to basics’ learning,” Dawson said.
TDSB is focusing on math, science and literacy — and DEI education compliments these subjects, she said.
Dawson added that diversity amongst the student population in the TDSB, and province-wide, is increasing. Given that context, she said it’s essential teachers are learning to overcome their own biases in order to adequately serve student needs.
Dawson said the TDSB has already implemented DEI training with staff as part of ongoing professional development. However, that may not necessarily be true at school boards province-wide, she said.
“This would provide for a consistent methodology and expectations of teachers.”
Bell said a DEI certification for teachers has precedent. In 2022, the Ministry of Education implemented a mandatory certification for Ontario teachers about online sexual abuse prevention.
The motion does not give further detail on what topics the proposed DEI certification would include. Instead, it provides a list of groups the province is encouraged to consult with in the development of the training.
Is hate on the rise in the TDSB?
On Wednesday evening, Williams Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute student Gideon Djorgee also spoke in support of the motion.
He said a DEI certification for teachers would provide students with the best possible opportunities to achieve their full potential.
Djorgee said that as a Black student, he’s been blessed not to have experienced significant racial discrimination at school, but that he’s been saddened to learn the same has not always been true for his peers.
Djorgee said Jewish students at school have been targeted by peers over their religious identity since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 and following the Israeli government’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.
He also told the trustees about an incident where a teacher expressed surprise at a racialized student’s English fluency, despite the fact the pupil was born in Canada.
Between September to December 2023, about 460 hate-related incidents reported by students through the board’s racism, bias and hate portal were addressed by the TDSB — a 117 per cent increase from the same period in 2022.
In a report, TDSB staff cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from year-over-year data, noting the increase may be due at least in part to increased use of the portal.
Of the 2023 incidents, the vast majority (81 per cent) involved hate-related comments or slurs.
80 per cent of incidents were race-related, 20 per cent targeted a student's religion or creed, and 14 per cent were focused on a student’s gender or sexual orientation.
Anti-Black racism was the most common form of hate reported, occurring in 56 per cent of all cases, followed by antisemitism (15 per cent) and East-Asian racism (10 per cent).
Djorgee said he believed these instances of hate could be slowed or even stopped by better equipping teachers to discuss diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom.
Likelihood of implementation
A spokesperson for Minister of Education Jill Dunlop did not respond to TorontoToday by the time of publication about her willingness to explore the certification.
However, a spokesperson for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation said that if the certification becomes a provincial matter, the group will formulate a position.
Trustee Dawson said she could not comment on the likelihood of provincial support for the idea, should it be passed by the TDSB board.
However she said that if the government is interested in seeing a boost in student success, they should welcome the proposal.
“I think if the government has mandates and expectations around improved student achievement, that this is a worthwhile initiative for them to engage,” she said.
