Wednesday, January 16, 2008

A possible step to segregation in Toronto’s schools

I cannot believe what I just saw on the news tonight. The Toronto school board (or one of them) is looking into having special schools and programs for black students. I understand that the idea is to try to meet the needs of black students, as there is a high drop out rate. However great the intention they have this is not a good idea. This is the first step to segregation. Special schools and programs based on skin colour no matter what the intentions are is not the right direction to go. Programs should be based on the students needs not their skin colour.

This is going open a big can of worms and I will be very surprised if they follow threw on this proposal. There are a few big problems I can see: one is that a non black student is going to be upset that they don’t get the extra help if they need it based on their skin colour. Also what about mix race? Because they have a black person in their family line does that mean they can go to this school or not because they have a non-black person in their family line? Does this mean other groups will start having special schools and programs? They did say that any one could go to the school but that it would be designed for the needs of the black students. Once this starts then you need to meet every groups needs, you cannot have a school designed to meet just the needs of one segment of the school population in this day and age. How are the students going to feel about being in a special program or school? Every one knows that in school “special” has a very negative connotation.

I think that they need to look at it not in terms of skin colour but the geographical location of the schools. There should be programs and schools available to try and help all the students stay in school in that geographical area. The higher the drop out rate in the area the more help available to the schools in this area. I believe that the idea to help students is on right track, but it must not be based on the colour of ones skin but the needs of the individual student.

Here is a link to a news article School board to discuss black-focused schools