Concerns over number of Nunavut teachers mount

There are more concerns about the number of new teachers announced in this year's budget.

There is more than one million dollars for new teaching positions.

The education minister says that's about 12 to 14 new teachers. But there's a debate over how those numbers were reached. And what they really mean to the classroom.

When the number of students in Nunavut's schools goes up, the number of teachers has to as well.

Education minister James Arvaluk says there's a ratio of students to teachers the government follows.

"We are trying to use 22 to 1 for aour average size classroom, but it's really wide depending on what community you come from."

Those variances are what's causing a lot of headaches. One teacher may have 35 students. While another might have a class of 13. And to add to the confusion, some communities have more teachers than what the teacher-pupil ratio says they should. Iqaluit, for example, has about 12 teachers more than the ratio allows.

That's because the education board has found more money within in its budget to hire more teachers.

For Donna Stephania, it all means the government's pupil-teacher ratio is misleading and inaccurate.

She's with the Federation of Nunavut Teachers. Stephania says that teachers are still being over-worked, across the Territory. "I think that the deprtment has acknowledged that it's a serious issue. I'm just concerned that they are not acknowledging it with enough money."

Department officials are gathering statistics on how many people are in classrooms across Nunavut.

They say it will take a while to fix the formula they use to figure out teacher-student ratio.