NDP doing survey on classroom sizes
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 16, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com The provincial NDP is demanding better support for public education in Alberta.Rakhi Pancholi, the Alberta NDP education critic joined Lethbridge West MLA Shannon Phillips and a local teacher on Friday to address the state of education here.
The teacher, Kevin MacBeth of Winston Churchill High School, told media about the difficulties trying to create safe spaces and a good learning environment for students with large class sizes.
He said in one class he has 39 students and in another 34. At the start of the year, there weren’t even enough desks to accommodate all the students.
Pancholi has been doing a tour of the province discussing education issues with parents, teachers, administrators and education assistants.
Phillips said the issue of larger class sizes is nothing new for many people in Lethbridge.
“Many parents, educators are talking about the larger class sizes that we’re seeing,” Phillips said.
Pancholi said the NDP launched a survey last week about class sizes “because the UCP government stopped tracking and reporting on the sizes of classes in Alberta schools right now. That’s a problem because people don’t know how big the problem is across this province,” said Pancholi, the MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud.
The survey asks parents and teachers to tell them how many students are in classes and what are the imaptrs of education cuts to the supports needed in classroom.
“The reason we are collecting this is so that we can tell people across the province this is the state of education after four years of funding cuts,” said Pancholi.
“School is an exciting time,” said Pancholi, a mom of two young children who are going to classes more fuller than they used to be.
“And that means every child’s education is affected. Teachers are spreading their attention thinly amongst over 30 plus kids sometimes. And we know that’s there’s not the EA supports that they need. Those classrooms are more complex, they’ve got more mental health issues. Kids need more support and unfortunately what they’re getting from the UCP is less support,” added Pancholi.
MacBeth, a teacher for 21 years, is seeing the largest classrooms he’s ever experienced.
He has 39 students in one class and 34 in Grade 9. In context he should have 27 in classes of grades 10 to 12 and about 25 in Grade 9.
“When you have that many kids in your class – a couple things, first logistically I didn’t have enough desks to start my school so I had kids sitting in chairs,” and after scrounging around, he managed to acquire desks, he said.
“It’s important to have low class sizes because when you have low class sizes you can establish relationships and connection. When I have 39 students in 75 minutes, it becomes really difficult to develop that connection. A connection is necessary for kids to feel safe so they can have a space to grow academically, they can have a space to grow emotionally and those spaces are being just constrained,’ said MacBeth, who added it’s also frustrating being a parent as well.
“It’s a strain on my time and my ability to do my job as best as I can.”
Every teacher wants to make sure they can give every student the attention they need,” said MacBeth.
Teachers are seeing more complexity with students having mental health issues or who are anxious.
“We want to make sure they have a safe space to come and it’s harder to create that space when there’s 39” kids sitting at desks, he added.
Phillips said the NDP wants to know from parents what is working and what isn’t and what kind of conditions their children are facing in classrooms.
The survey is available at albertasfuture.ca
Pancholi said there have been hundreds of responses already in the first week since the survey was launched.
The party is hearing about kindergarten classes with 30 students and Grade 5 classes with more than that. In Edmonton, there are classes with 50 students.
“Every single one of them deserves to have same quality education, the same access to the supports they need, teachers who are able and prepared to deliver the best curriculum and education program they can. Every single one of our kids deserve that,” added Pancholi. Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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