#TorontoIsFailingMe: My kid’s school is a disgrace

Nayamath and Amal Syed at Secord Elementary

My wife, Athaya, and I are originally from Chennai, India, but spent more than a decade living in Abu Dhabi, where I worked as a computer analyst. Three years ago, when our daughter, Amal, was four, we decided we wanted to give her the kind of first-class education she couldn’t get in the United Arab Emirates. I quit my job and we came to Canada in May 2011.


Upon our arrival, I quickly secured a position with an engineering firm, ­working as a global IT analyst. My family settled in East York, where we found an affordable two-bedroom unit on the 18th floor of an apartment complex at Main and Danforth. We’ve lived there ever since—the bulk of our neighbours are Indian and Pakistani, but we also live alongside Filipinos, Koreans, Jamaicans and Ukrainians.

Our first autumn in Toronto, Amal started senior kindergarten at ­Secord Elementary School near Danforth and Main, which consists of a century-old main building and a convoy of 14 ­portables connected by hallways. The portables were built two decades ago as a temporary solution to student overflow, but the school has never received the funding to replace them. Over the years, these makeshift buildings have slowly deteriorated—we’ve had raccoon infestations, falling ceiling tiles and water damage. Some parents believe the water is contaminated, and that their kids have developed rashes after drinking from the fountains. Between growing classroom sizes and the arrival of full-day kindergarten in 2014, more and more kids have been forced into the portables.  (more...)

#TorontoIsFailingMe: My kid’s school is a disgrace

Analysis at Subway to Damascus

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