With some support from the Selinger government, school divisions across Manitoba have now hired more than 300 additional teachers to comply with the province’s cap on early-years class sizes.
The province says over 100 new teachers have been added this year alone, bringing the total to 315 three years before the cap comes into law.
It’s a requirement Education and Advanced Learning Minister James Allum calls beneficial.
“Smaller class sizes mean teachers have more time to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student early and help them succeed in their critical early years,” Allum said.
But some school officials, including Trustee Glenn Smith of Flin Flon, have said the cap is based on inconclusive research and takes money and discretion away from school boards.
“It’s not fun for somebody to sit in Winnipeg and look at a [class size] number and tell you how to manage your school,” he said last year. “We pay administrators a good salary. They have a very good background in education. They could make those decisions much better than somebody in an office in Winnipeg looking at a number...and saying, ‘This is what you’re going to do.’”
