Support a proposal for K-12 Ontario computing education
The Ministry of Education in Ontario has recently requested provincial feedback regarding the improvement of the publicly funded education system: https://www.ontario.ca/page/for-the-parents.
Currently computing education is not standard in the K-12 curriculum. In particular there is no guarantee that students in K-8 will ever experience computer programming (it often depends on the ability of individual teachers to run extracurricular activities such as the Hour of Code program). And many high schools offer no computer science electives at all, which would give students the opportunity to explore computing as a career pathway.
Given the tremendous economic growth and worker shortages in the technology sector, it is vital to the future of Ontario’s economy that K-12 computing education is improved. An improved K-12 computing education can also make these opportunities available in a more equitable way, which is important to improving participation from lower income and underrepresented groups.
In an effort to help the government understand the need for improved K-12 computing education, a 2 page proposal has been created and made available at: codeontario.ca. The authors of the paper are actively seeking support from parents, teachers, industry professionals, and anyone in Ontario that would like to see K-12 computing education improved. If you support improved K-12 computing education, please take a few moments to sign the support form.
The proposal was a collaborative effort by the following individuals:
- Dr. Kevin Browne, Professor, Mohawk College
- Dr. Christopher Anand, Associate Professor, McMaster University
- Grant Hutchison, Secondary Computer Science Teacher, TDSB / Sessional Facilitator, University of Toronto (OISE)
- Peter Beens, Secondary Computer Science Teacher, DSBN / President ACSE
- Roy Parteno, Secondary Computer Science Teacher (Retired), DPDSB
- Sylvia Kwan, Elementary Teacher, TDSB (Retired), TDSB
