COMMENTARY

Although I enjoy teaching and I believe I provide a good role model for the girls in the school, I may not be coming back next year. I am not a certified teacher. I have applied to the teacher training program at Queen's University but because of Regulation 269 in the Education Act, I have been turned down. Regulation 269 states that five years industry experience (or two years industry experience with three years of related education) is required for people wishing to obtain a technical teaching certificate. This sounds like a reasonable pre-requisite to ensure expertise in the field but, in effect, it bars many women from teacher training. Not many have extensive experience in technological industries.

I have a B.A. in history, I am raising teenaged children of my own, I have six years experience working with computers at the federal government, and a mechanical engineering certificate from a community college (a two year course). I have also completed a four month course about women in technology and advanced courses in computer drafting. But I have only twenty-one months of experience in the drafting industry. Even without most of my education and work experience I am very close to meeting the qualifications under the Act. But I have not been accepted.

The administration of both my current and my previous schools have written to Queen's with glowing recommendations. The principal and teachers and members of the Board of Education have been very supportive of my application, to no avail. I am now forced to make a decision about my teaching. I want to stay, but should I make the financial and security sacrifices that uncertified teaching entails for another two years? I could teach on a letter of permission again next year but the pressures of being one of the few female teachers in the field is enough without the added pressure of being uncertified.

The Minister of Colleges and Universities informed me that the Regulation 269 is being reconsidered. The amendments will take too long to help me but I encourage groups involved in education equity for women, such as CCLOW, to make recommendations to the Minister so this barrier to female participation in technology can be removed.

Jane Will has received final notification that she will not be accepted into the program, and has decided to return to full-time work in computer drafting.