December 22,2025
The Canadian Press
Ontario’s education minister is signalling that changes to how new teachers are certified will be announced next year, and will entail a larger practical component.
In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Education Minister Paul Calandra says he is looking at shortening the length of teachers’ college and has been looking over teacher supply and demand numbers.
He says he is consistently hearing that teacher candidates need to spend more time in front of a classroom before doing it full-time.
Calandra says he will communicate final decisions in the new year, but more practical time will be an element of it.
Ontario has among the shortest practicum lengths in Canada for teachers, at 80 days.
Teachers’ college programs have generally been two years long, divided into four semesters, for the past decade.
In 2015, the then-Liberal government doubled the length of the program from one year in response to a teacher surplus at the time.
Since then, there have been calls from some in education to return to a one-year program.
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