Friday, January 21, 2011

Blazing the Trail: Eastern Canada High School Sets Higher Standards

By Farid Omar

Establishing an innovative, goals-oriented, supportive learning environment in high school education can be a tall order for many public schools that are ill-equipped to deal with the needs of culturally diverse students.

A significant number of students of visible minority background in the Toronto District School Board including those of East-African descent not only find it difficult to complete school, but fall on the wayside as drop outs with diminished prospects of making the transition to post-secondary education.

But the Eastern Canada High School (ECHS) located at 36 Colville Road ( Keele and Lawrence Area) is changing all that. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Abdinoor, the Principal of the high achieving school that is blazing the trail in community-oriented, private, high school education.

Principal Abdinoor holds a BA in engineering from Ryerson University and over a long span of involvement in the education sector; has served as a teacher in the public school system and operated a tutoring service tailored to the needs of Somali-Canadian students.

Mr. Abdinoor has been deeply involved in numerous community development initiatives. It was through his teaching and tutoring experience that he identified gaps in the public school system and embarked on a mission to seek viable alternatives for his community. He was concerned by the fact that the progress of high schoolers in his community had been hampered by a school system that did not understand the socio-economic and cultural dynamics of a community living at the margins of society.

To fix this problem, Mr. Abdinoor took the initiative to set up the Eastern Canada High School that in many regards is a shining example of an alternative, private school model – that efficiently meets the needs of its students, expectations of parents and overall educational goals of its respective community. Parents who feel let down by the public school system have turned their attention to Eastern Canada High School to secure their children’s academic future.

Mr. Abdinoor pointed to the uniqueness of the school stating that unlike the public school system, “Eastern Canada High School provides a safe, healthy, supervised environment” adding that it challenges its students “to a higher academic standard and rigorous work ethic to meet more criteria to keep up their grade point averages”.

The ECHS is an accredited private high school offering credit courses for grades 9 to 12 students who are aiming to complete their Ontario secondary school diploma. It provides students with numerous learning options as they can enroll in full time day or evening classes, earn extra credits to catch up on or earn credits not offered by local high schools when students need it most. Students can earn these credits alongside their regular semester courses.

Students also have the options to enroll in online courses and to take additional credits during the summer while tutoring services are available at evenings for those who need it. With a student-teacher ratio at less than 10 students per teacher, students have greater access to teachers, and this guarantees a one-on-one teacher instruction. Such is the quality of the school, which also boasts of teachers holding advanced PhD and MA degrees.

When asked why parents should chose a private school like ECHS where they are expected to pay tuition over public schools that are tuition free, Mr. Abdinoor said” public schools can help students succeed if they want, equally, if they want students to fail, they can help them fail.” Eastern Canada High School is different because “our goal is to prevent students from failing, by deploying caring teachers who understand the needs and challenges of the students”.

“We engage the students’ families on day to day basis and parents are here most of the time” says Abdinoor. “If students experience personal problems, they are not left alone; we have support groups in place to ensure no kid falls behind”.
As a big school with small classes offering a wide range of subjects, Abdinoor observes that Eastern Canada “is goal-oriented and instills students with the expectation of attending university”. As a result, students have higher rates of acceptance to universities and colleges.

The sky is the limit for students in this school. Hibo Machel, a grade 12 student, expressed her optimism of attending a post secondary institution and pursuing a successful career in a management and executive level in future.

“I plan to enroll in a marketing and advertising program at Ryerson and complete a Bachelor degree in business” Hibo confidently said. “I hope to work one day as a production manager or advertising executive for a major corporation like Coca Cola or Dove” says Hibo, adding that her ultimate goal is “to become a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for a major corporation”.

Hibo speaks highly of her school. “I like the one-on-one approach here, which is unlike regular schools that rush students”. “Teachers here help you till evening. They are productive and precise in what they teach”.

“This is a good school, and I like it here. Even though there a number of students in a given class, you can always count on a one-on-one teacher support you can’t get elsewhere”. Says Hibo who forsees a bright future ahead.

For young Hibo and many other students here, ECHS is the foundation upon where they build their academic goals and make a successful transition to universities, on the path to successful careers in future. To register students, parents can call Eastern Canada High School at (416) 567-4404.