COVID-19 has exposed the inequities that exist within our education system.
A truly healthy community requires inclusive and barrier-free access to safe, high-quality education. That also means ensuring everyone has affordable access to the resources they need to learn. It’s time to take action in creating change across London and Middlesex County, so that we can increase educational attainment in our community. We need to go further to ensure that more people have the skills they need to be productive and economically empowered. Everyone deserves that.
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Making Education Equitable
And increasing economic empowerment.
Be the change in the fight to make education accessible to everyone by working through these simple steps. Take the actions, read the blogs, dig into the statistics, or attend a Vital Conversation event; each step you take will make a difference.
Amplify
Follow, engage with, and share the causes and organizations that you’re passionate about on social media. Help spread their message throughout your personal networks.
Use Your Voice
Speak up when faced with opinions or structures that make education inaccessible or discriminatory. Ask elected officials, or candidates how they’re building a more inclusive, equitable, resourced education system. Ready to write to an elected official? You can reference this template to guide your communication.
Show up
Find and attend local events, meetings, debates or marches that allow you to show your support by standing alongside those impacted by the issues firsthand. Showing up in solidarity with those who have lived experience as an ally and a supporter can help advance real change. Make signs, tell friends, and show up.
Share Your Resources and Time
Reach out, connect and support local organizations working to expand access to education. Donations and volunteer time are needed to help make change. Click here to see our full guide of local organizations and find one that you’d like to support.
And stay in touch! Be the Change will be sharing additional, tangible actions that will make a difference in the lives of members of our community. Sign up for our special email list to be kept in the loop.
Know your Numbers
School closures during the pandemic have had a negative impact on learning. This has severe consequences for children and youth with lower socioeconomic backgrounds as well as those who are from racialized communities. A Canadian survey of 9,500 educators conducted in spring 2021 found that 55% of elementary and secondary teachers reported fewer students were meeting learning objectives compared to other years, 75% said they were behind schedule in covering curriculum, and 70% were worried that some students will not catch up academically (Science Table, COVID-19 Advisory for Ontario). Public Health Ontario reports that these negative impacts go beyond academics. School closures affect the health and well-being of children in ways such as loss of access to free or low-cost meals, access to school–based healthcare, an environment for socialisation, physical activity, routine, structure and extra curricular activities.
Lasting impact of COVID-19 on Canadian education
This graphic shows three pie charts, stacked in a pyramid shape, all representing answers to a survey of Canadian teachers conducted in 2021. The first chart represents the number of teachers who reported fewer students meeting learning objectives as compared to previous years, and depicts the number 55%. The second chart represents the number of teachers who reported that they were behind schedule in covering curriculum and depicts the number 75%. The third chart represents the number of teachers who reported being worried that some students wouldn’t be able to catch up academically from COVID-19’s impact on education and depicts the number 70%.
Want to dive deeper into the issue of education in London and Middlesex County?
Check out our London Vital Signs Data Hub for more data.
We recognize that we have blindspots; if we’ve missed an important message or if you’re aware of a statistic that has changed, please contact us and let us know.
London Leaders
There is so much knowledge in our community. This is a city full of activists, movement leaders, changemakers and lived experience experts and there is so much more to learn from them. Many are sharing their perspective on what’s next and building on the call for each of us to Be the Change.
Explore the diverse perspectives that provoke new thinking:
Conversations
You’ve Taken Action.
But Don’t Stop There.
Change happens when people come together. Encourage those around you to take action. To help, we’ve designed these downloadable graphics that you can share on your own social media.
Click on the image to download.
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