A couple of weeks ago I met with a friend of mine who has taken on the very challenging task of creating a new business – a new business that would create employment in her community and provide a very worthwhile and needed service. Sheileen is starting a new private primary school.
The reason we were meeting was to see if I might be able to offer any advice to help her market the new school.
Talking to Sheileen and listening to her describe her vision and her dedication to education convinced me there certainly was a place for her new offering in the education market in her area – Toronto. Sheileen has years of experience as both a teacher and as an education administrator, in fact she had run her own successful school (at the high school level) in the past.
The challenge Sheileen faces, however, is that the “market” for education does not come close to resembling a true competitive market. The Ontario government fully funds public and Catholic primary and secondary education through general taxation. In other words, whether you have a child enrolled in a publicly funded school or not, you’re already paying for it. If a parent choses to send a child to an independent school they have to pay for it on their own. This is hardly a level playing field when it comes to education, and this is also discriminatory:
Against the backdrop of this obvious inequity, the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee issued a report in 1999 criticizing Ontario’s educational policy as blatantly discriminatory. The committee recommended that Ontario either extend public funding to all independent schools irrespective of religious orientation or withhold such funding from all such schools.
This has long been a concern of parents who choose to enroll their children in independent schools, and has made it very difficult for independent schools to compete fairly for students.
And now, as if the financial disadvantage wasn’t enough, the Ontario Government has introduced another way to discourage parents from choosing an independent education option for their children:
Ontario will start requiring high school credits and grades received from private schools to be flagged on student transcripts with the letter “P” starting this fall.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne confirmed Tuesday that the move was in response to public concerns that some private schools were providing “easy marks” for a fee. Such fees can run up to $2,000 for a three-week summer Grade 12 English course.
So because “some private schools” are not upholding adequate standards, the government will flag ALL private school grades with a “P”. Instead of identifying and dealing with only the offending schools, the government will stain the reputation of all private schools.
This is clearly an unfair policy, and I believe it is more about boosting public school enrollment than it is about “improving transparency”.
So what advice can I offer Sheileen? What marketing angle or creative campaign could possibly overcome these very real obstacles to success? I will continue to ponder that one.
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To learn more about Sheileen’s new school, please visit:
www.alderwoodtoronto.ca
In England the independent schools are leaving the state examination system, choosing the International Baccalaureat exams instead.