The province is funding more teachers this year, but there’s limited space for them to work.
At École Assiniboine, new provincial funding has allowed the division to add a teacher.
“They get to know the teacher a little bit more and it’s more of a community in the classroom, better environment,” said Stella Hussey, principal of École Assiniboine.
The province added $4 million this year to help hire more than 70 new teachers.
It’s the second year of the provincial government’s plan to cut down Kindergarten to Grade 3 class sizes.
“Number one issue among our members and number one issue when we do our public poll – people care about class size,” said Paul Olson, president of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society.
“Their competency in reading, writing, arithmetic, their social skills – all are stronger when they have a teacher with a class size around 20,” said Premier Greg Selinger.
But more teachers means more classrooms will be needed and many schools have already run out of room.
“We’re just simply running out of new spaces to put the classes, even if we have the staff,” said Brian O’Leary, Seven Oaks superintendent.
The division has to use 47 modular units to function.
O’Leary said the units take more to maintain and don’t ease the strain on gyms and libraries.
“In the winter, (it’s) in and out to go to music, in and out to go to the library, in and out to go to the washroom. It gets a bit much for the kids,” he said.
Manitoba has more than 300 portables as temporary solutions and the province expects more will be needed.
Parents who spoke to CTV News at École Assiniboine think it’s OK as a temporary solution, but hope more permanent classrooms come soon.
The province invested $15 million to renovate or build 28 classrooms this year and has five new schools under construction or in the design phase.
- with a report from Alesia Fieldberg
