(File photo/CJME News Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

education impasse

Teachers’ biggest challenge is classroom complexity says NDP candidate

Nov 22, 2019 | 4:43 PM

A local teacher and provincial political candidate says the move to more complex classroom composition in recent years is the main concern for his colleagues in the Prince Albert area.

Troy Parenteau, the NDP candidate for the PA Carlton riding for next year’s election, was speaking amidst the impasse between the profession and the government regarding class size and composition.

“We’re seeing students with diagnoses and children with socio-economic issues coming into our rooms,” he told paNOW in referencing the very diversified range of students local teachers are dealing with. “We’re not seeing a lot of supports like speech language pathologists, educational assistants, occupational therapists and special assistants.”

Parenteau said classrooms had become far more complex over the last five to 10 years.

“There are a lot of teachers feeling a little burnt out; maybe that they don’t have the tools to deal with the situation of complexity,” he explained.

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The government’s newly formed Class Size and Composition Committee meets for the first time next week. In a media release, Education Minister Gordon Wyant said it was important the committee’s make-up included “the voice of parents, teachers, staff, leaders and Indigenous people.”

Six of the eight members of the committee, which is to be chaired by Minister of Education Deputy Minister Rob Currie, are former teachers and the government said it would welcome the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) input at the table. The committee’s members include Northern and Indigenous advisors, a student support consultant and a third-party education expert among others.

The committee’s work will include a review of the class size and student demographic and class composition trends in Saskatchewan to Grade 12 provincial schools, according to the media release.

The STF meanwhile, is boycotting the committee because it believes the issue of class size and composition should be a matter for discussion at the bargaining table “to ensure accountability and authority in the process, the [bargaining] committee and its membership,” it said in a media release. It accused the government of trying to undermine the collective bargaining process by effectively meddling in matters by creating a different committee.

Another objection from the union, according to Parenteau, is the government’s move to block key members of the bargaining committee from being on the new committee. The government has invited the STF to nominate one representative.

“They (the STF bargaining committee members) are probably the ones with the most expertise around issues with class size and composition, “Parenteau said. “So, not allowing those on the bargaining team to also be on the committee blocks some of those who would have the best perspective.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow