Yukon education minister explains cuts to educational assistant positions

Yukon's education minister is reassuring parents that students who need an educational assistant will have their needs met.

This follows concerns raised by The Yukon Teachers' Association (YTA) which anticipated that up to 40 positions could be gone by next fall.

• Yukon to cut educational assistants, teachers' union says

Tracey Anne McPhee says the Yukon Teachers Association 'misunderstood' how EA positions have been allocated for the coming school year.

Equivalent of 11 full-time positions possibly 'left empty'

McPhee said that after assessing student enrollment and the needs of each school, an equivalent of 11 full-time educational assistant positions will be left empty for the new school, as compared to last year.

But McPhee said that's a "fluid situation" that could easily change.

"[It's] based on what the need is," McPhee said. "It's always assessed on student need. No student who requires... an intensive EA would go without an EA, or without access to that support.

"The assessment of student needs is ongoing, it's ongoing throughout the summer. It occurs in the fall, once each student gets to [their] classes...and a determination is made [then] if those numbers are correct. They may not be," said McPhee.

Yukon Teachers' association anticipated up to 40 positions cut

The Yukon Teachers' Association (YTA) had told the CBC the territory was preparing to reduce the number of educational assistants (EAs) working in Yukon schools next fall.

YTA president Jill Mason said school administrators were recently told by the Department of Education that "they wouldn't get as many educational assistants as they had last year."

Mason believed there could be around 40 fewer EAs next year. She estimates there are about 225 working as non-permanent employees in Yukon schools.

According to Mason, an allocation committee made up of teachers, parents, First Nations and others decided last year that EAs should be allocated based on students' needs, not with an "arbitrary cap" on their numbers.

She says word of the cuts came even before schools had submitted their needs-based requests.

McPhee said the situation will be re-assessed in the fall.