Oakwood students ‘outraged’ over Africentric school proposal
Posted March 28, 2011 3:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
By September, Toronto could have its first Africentric high school, located at Oakwood Collegiate Institute.
But many students and parents are upset over the proposal, recommended by the Toronto District School Board.
“We, as students are outraged over this proposal. We think the idea is terrible but we don’t get much say because we are never consulted on any issue,” Oakwood student Lisa Nham said in a letter to CityNews.ca.
The students argue Oakwood is multicultural school, and the Africentric school amounts to segregation.The drop-out rate for black students within the TDSB is 40 per cent. That’s much higher than that of the general population, where 25 per cent of students leave without graduating.
The proposal is set to go before a committee of trustees Wednesday and the school’s council has publicly stated they will ask for more time to consider the proposal.
If accepted, the Africentric School would be a “school within a school.” This means teens enrolled in the program could take classes offered by the home school and vice-versa.
The TDSB has stated they’re looking at Oakwood partly because of space; Oakwood currently has 730 students and room for approximately 300 more.
Meanwhile students have created a Facebook page and started an online petition to argue against the changes.
The TDSB opened its first Africentric School in 2009, an elementary school that is said to be performing well and currently has a waiting list.
“The results have been fantastic,” TDSP superintendent Jim Spyropoulos told CityNews.
There are also reports another program could be opened at Scarborough’s Winston Churchill Collegiate in 2012.
