Larger class sizes will hurt students

It appears the long-lasting peace treaty between educators and politicians is in jeopardy. Politicians from Toronto to local school boards are eyeing the removal of negotiated class-size limits in schools. Educators, knowing the limits of their productivity with dysfunctional class sizes, are angered by this proposal, to say the least.

It’s like the classic case of the hospital administration telling the surgeon to be quicker and more efficient in the operating room to save costs.

The politicians’ priority is funding. The educators’ priority is quality of educational time with individual students. For a period of time under the Liberal government, a peaceful mid-road had been struck. By contract, there were restrictions and limits in class sizes teachers had to accept even though there were plenty of unavoidable exceptions, which teachers tolerated. However, recently a shot was fired by a local counsellor, praising the Ontario government for considering lifting class-size ceilings on primary grades and even suggesting it be extended system-wide to all classes. Thus, the board would have an unlimited number of bricks to place on the backs of teachers. Educators retaliated by stating it would turn schools into glorified daycare centres, which limits teaching capabilities.

This all resembles the days of the Mike Harris government and teachers of Ontario, whence the education system’s morality in Ontario hit rock bottom. Teachers were so angered by the Harris bullying they refrained from implementing extracurricular activities and limited their after-school hours. Apparently history is about to repeat itself, a time when war breaks out between educators and politicians with the student being the sole loser.

Yvonne DiNardo, LaSalle