The NDP is calling on the Sask. Party government to properly fund classrooms, and to track, and set a maximum size for classroom sizes, after years of underfunding have made increasingly crowded and complex classrooms throughout the province more challenging for teachers to manage.
“We have 70 schools in the province that are already overcapacity, and we have classrooms with 30, 40, or even more students,” said NDP Leader Ryan Meili. “The challenges are already there, and they aren’t getting any easier for teachers, especially not when you consider the millions that have been cut from classrooms by this government.”
Education Critic Carla Beck noted that overcapacity classrooms make for a difficult learning environment for students. Yet the Sask. Party government isn’t even monitoring or regulating class sizes, let alone setting an upper limit for how large they can grow.
Because of a lack of proper funding to classrooms, school divisions are being forced to dip into reserves or make more cuts.
“The Sask. Party’s approach to education is putting teachers’ jobs at risk and is at the very least forcing them to do more with less,” Beck said. “The needs in the classroom are growing more and more complex, but budgets are becoming more and more strained. We need to be helping teachers put students first, not make their jobs more difficult.”