Peel - 170 principals, vice principals and superintendents from across the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board will gather on Wednesday, May 30 from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm at the board’s Blessed Trinity Catholic Centre for Learning, 2495 Credit Valley Road, Mississauga, for a one-day think tank session to examine and discuss what education in the 21st century looks like.

The exercise, called the 21st Century Principals’ Congress, will see administrators explore, over a 12-hour period, the “what, why and how” of 21st century education. Drawing from a variety of sources and works, they will explore the many elements of 21st century education to ultimately determine what it is we want our students to learn and how we should teach it.

“The 21st Principals’ Congress is looking at the teaching and learning environment for the students who are entering our Kindergarten classrooms today and who will be graduating in 2025,” said Dufferin-Peel director of education, John B. Kostoff. “We are focusing on school and system leadership to build on the excellent practices in place today to transform our classrooms for the Catholic graduate of the future.”

Added Kostoff, “The world has changed, how students learn has changed and so it follows that education, too, must change to ensure the success of our future generations. Our objective, as always, is to provide a rich and meaningful contemporary education for our students, within the context of our Catholic faith. This congress is just the first step in exploring what it means, as a Catholic school graduate, to be ready for the 21st century.”

This exercise is the beginning of a stakeholder engagement process that will continue at all levels of the organization over the next year. The results of Wednesday’s exercise will be compiled into a discussion paper that will form the basis of dialogue with teachers, school councils and other stakeholders.

The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board is one of the largest and most diverse school boards in Ontario. It serves approximately 85,000 students in 146 schools located throughout Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon and Orangeville. With over 10,000 employees, the board is also one of the largest employers in the region.