"The Toronto District School Board is ending outdoor education programs at five centres that it says require tens of millions of dollars in maintenance and repairs. In a statement Thursday, the TDSB said it has made the "difficult decision" to close the outdoor education centre at Warren Park, end the leases at the Forest Valley and Etobicoke locations and end programming at two in-school sites, the Toronto Urban Studies Centre and Island Natural Science School."
""We continue to recognize the importance of outdoor education and will be able work with a variety of external sites to offer opportunities to our students should demand exceed our remaining centres," TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said in the statement. Bird said the outdoor education centres at Mono Cliffs and Hillside will remain open."
"Lauren Socha, a parent whose son attends the daycare at the Island Natural Science School, said the news is unfortunate. "I think that's really, really disappointing," she said. "It's such a unique opportunity for kids, especially city kids that don't necessarily have access all the time for this sort of thing. It's really a loss for all those families that will be coming through the system in the future.""
"Sachin Maharaj, an assistant professor of educational leadership, policy and program evaluation at the University of Ottawa, said the centres provide students opportunities to learn things "that can't really be effectively learned just in a classroom." Maharaj said students from wealthier families often have opportunities to learn about the natural world through camps or the cottage. "If you're learning about science, about plants, biology, animals ... you could learn about it from a textbook, but it's not"
The Toronto District School Board is ending outdoor education programs at five centres, citing tens of millions of dollars needed for maintenance and repairs. The board says it will close the outdoor education centre at Warren Park, end leases at Forest Valley and Etobicoke, and stop programming at the Toronto Urban Studies Centre and Island Natural Science School. The board says outdoor education remains important and that it can work with external sites if student demand exceeds remaining centres. Outdoor education centres at Mono Cliffs and Hillside will remain open. Education experts and political leaders criticize the cuts, saying they will disproportionately affect low-income and marginalized students who rely on these opportunities.
#outdoor-education #toronto-district-school-board #education-funding-cuts #equity-for-low-income-students #student-learning-opportunities
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