CLASS SIZE
MATTERS BY KIMBERLY VENEZIALE I
t came as no surprise to me last year that the newly elected PC government in Ontario would suggest massive cuts to public education. Along with social services and healthcare, educa- tion is a big expense in any provincial budget, and so it logi- cally follows that a premier bent on austerity would look to those these sectors first. What was surprising, however, was then-Minister of Education Lisa Thompson stating in an in-
terview that proposed changes to education – including an increase in class size – were what teachers and families of students had asked for. Last year, the funded average for class sizes in the junior and in-
termediate grades was 23.84, but that is set to increase in Septem- ber 2019 to 24.5. While the average increase in elementary class size appears quite small and seems like a modest reduction in funding, using averages when discussing class size can be very misleading. In the 2018-2019 school year, before any increase or change to junior and intermediate class size funding was announced, I was already teaching a class of 32 grade six students. Some of my colleagues had classes of fewer than 24 students, but most did not. Because school boards use the class sizes of all junior and intermediate classes to determine their class size average, the numbers become skewed. It means that smaller rural schools in a school board may have classes well below 24 students, while larger schools in that school board may have classes well above. Here’s the thing: teaching 32 students is not impossible. It does,
however, change the quality of education my students receive in small but noticeable ways. I have been teaching in Ontario since 2005, and in that time have worked for three different school boards. My classes have ranged from 18 to 32 students. I can say with certainty that I am a different teacher with 14 fewer students. Students in my class of 32 would be hard-pressed to argue that anything was missing from their education. They had been together for three years, so they can’t really imagine it any other way. I notice, however. I know that they had a number of diminished experiences, in the best case, and some poten- tially dangerous ones, in the worst.
12 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2019
WHY I’M FIGHTING ANY INCREASES
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