The
trustees of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have voted
narrowly (11 to 9) to approve the establishment of the first
black-focused school in Toronto next school year. The TDSB could start
with two of such school if parents show interest in enrolling their
children in Canada’s first Africentric alternative school.
The debate leading
to this decision had been heated and even divisive particularly among
the Blacks in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While the advocates of
the black-focused school, including Professor George Sefa Dei of the
University of Toronto, have argued strongly that the current mainstream
Eurocentric education is not serving the needs of our black youth very
well, others, especially some parents, see the establishment of
black-focused school as revisiting the era of segregation which Martin
Luther King Jr. preached against some years past.
One of the parents
I spoke to on this issue puts up this argument: “When you put a
label on something, you make a statement: and the statement for the
“blacks’ only school” is a dangerous throwback to the
days of segregation. We have to focus on the future effect of this
proposal, non accredited school which leads to employment disability
for our future generation, when you are separated from others the
potential of your learning about them is low; how can our children cope
with being different.”
All stake holders
in education such parents, teachers in addition to the government must
be properly educated, consulted and listened to on any changes or
policies that strongly affect our children’s education.
Undoubtedly
education has been the major facilitator and catalyst in the
astonishing changes and transformation sweeping through the world
today. The role of formal (school) education in the liberation of the
individual mind as well as economic dependence and in national
development is therefore quite obvious.
Thus, education
pays off not only in literacy but also in income! It is therefore quite
obvious that education is very imperative to the sound development of
individuals and nations. Every country ought to provide its people with
qualitative and “not only quantitative” education! And
every parent ought to ensure that their child gets the best of formal
education as much as possible.
|
To many, the establishment
of Africentric alternative school to help keep black youth in school
and to make then more successful seems like a good idea, given that the
zero tolerance policy appears to have been systematically abused by
some teachers and administrators to discriminate against black
students. “Establishing separate schools for blacks is heedless and
certainly will not solve the immediate problem. It will rather engage
in a lengthy bureaucratic exercise that will cost tax payers
substantially while gun play continues to kill black youths”, argues a
black parent who has volunteered in an inner city school with
considerable black population.
“You have to have a school that will give teachers ongoing training so
that they can get better at what they do. You have to have a school
that respects the children and the communities that these students come
from”, Mavis suggests.
Research has it that:
“The example of
the First Nations School of Toronto, the only racially based school in
the city, has shown that creating a school for one racial group is not
the solution. Julian Falconer’s report on
school violence released in January, 2008 after the unfortunately
shooting of Jordan Manners to death at C.W. Jeffreys High School in
Toronto last year found conditions at the school ‘unacceptable.
The report concluded that TDSB is ‘failing one of our most
marginalized and vulnerable communities.”
Any Way Forward?
To some parents, a
more responsible approach would be to take a combination of actions to
ensure the adequate representations of blacks in positions of authority
within the education system. That means recruiting more black teachers,
counselors, principals and trustees in the short term. In the long run,
the community should engage in a broad based campaign to encourage more
young black men and women to pursue careers in the education
profession. Institutions such as churches, community centers and ethnic
associations should be full partners in implementing such a strategy.
Also, within the current school system, teachers can still have ongoing
training so that they can get better at what they do. Teachers are
required to have some passion about their jobs and have an achievable
expectation of where they wish to see these children in the future.
We know that other ethnic students can be enrolled at the black-focused
school if their parents wished to do so. However, will all the teachers
at such school be only blacks?
Another area of concern is funding for black-focused schools. It is
reported that the Province of Ontario won’t help out in the
crucial area of seeing the black-focused schools through the challenges
ahead. Will the Africentric alternative schools be fully equipped with
resources to make them deliver effectively their objectives? This calls
for deeper thinking and planning on the part of TDSB.
It is therefore a genuine concern that, in the end, the black-focused
schools may just struggle to exist if they are established without
strong and continuous financial resources.
-end-
|
|
