Sex-ed, class size changes ahead

TORON TO • Ontario is increasing class sizes for Grades 4 to 12 to cut costs, a move critics say will hurt student learning and result in thousands of teaching jobs lost across the province.

The education reforms announced by the Progressive Conservative government Friday also include introducing a sex-ed curriculum that returns to teaching gender identity and consent after a modernized lesson plan was scrapped, revamping the math curriculum and banning cellphones in classrooms.

“Our plan will modernize the classroom, will protect the future of our education system, and will ensure Ontario’s students acquire the skills they need to build successful lives, families and businesses,” said Education Minister Lisa Thompson.

She said average high school class sizes will increase by six students — from 22 to 28.

The change will be phased in over four years and Thompson noted that Ontario high schools have one of the lowest student-toteacher ratios in the country.

Average class sizes for Grades 4 to 8 will increase by one student — from 23 students to 24. Class sizes for kindergarten through Grade 3 are not changing.

“Not one teacher — not one — will lose their job because of our class size strategy,” said Thompson, although she could not explain how the government would achieve that goal.

The government said the changes would “better balance student success and system sustainability” but could not immediately say how much the move would save.

The head of union representing Ontario’s public high school teachers said the change means about 3,600 secondary school teachers will lose their jobs over four years.

“( It’s) a loss that cannot possibly be absorbed without a significant impact on student learning and success,” said union president Harvey Bischoff, adding that Premier Doug Ford’s government has “declared war” on the education system.

“Given the premier’s repeated election promises that no jobs will be lost, the government quite simply has no mandate to make the changes they have announced this morning.”

Bischoff added that changes to several grants to schools will also meaning funding will drop by $1.4 billion for the education system.

Meanwhile, schools will have a new sex-ed curriculum in the fall that will replace an interim teaching plan brought in after the Progressive Conservatives took power last year and scrapped a modernized curriculum that had addressed consent, online bullying, sexting, same-sex relationships and gender identity.

The new document will return to teaching those lessons, but in some cases will do so when students are older. Gender identity, for instance, will now be taught in Grade 8. The curriculum will also include teachings on abstinence and lessons on cannabis.