Teachers across Sask. face cold during 1-day strike calling for better classroom conditions
Teachers demand smaller class sizes, better supports for kids with complex needs
Teachers across Saskatchewan are facing the cold Tuesday to put pressure on the province to negotiate on class size and complexity.
More than 13,000 teachers began a one-day strike Tuesday, with pickets starting at 8 a.m. CST. It is the first time Saskatchewan teachers have walked off the job since a three-day strike in May 2011.
Lauren Fuller, who teaches high school in Saskatoon, was one of the many educators walking the picket line in the city.
"We have a responsibility to make sure our classrooms are safe for students, that there's enough support for them, and that we are supported too because our job is important," Fuller said.
"So even though it's freezing, I will be here as long as it takes."
The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation announced the job action on Thursday, saying it would cancel the strike if the province would come to the table to bargain on the issue of class sizes.
"This is about the students in the classroom, class size and complexity in classes have gotten larger and larger and larger, particularly post-COVID, and the resources for those students have gone down," federation executive member Peggy Welter said in an interview with CBC Radio's The Morning Edition.
"We have fewer social workers, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, psychologists, EAs — we have fewer teachers now than we did three years ago."
Welter said education funding is not keeping up with inflation. She hopes this is the last of the job action, but said the teachers' union hasn't ruled out further measures if its demands aren't addressed.
Conditions lead educator to quit
A Saskatoon educator who spent 12 years in the classroom before quitting says the strike is a needed step to deal with worsening conditions in the classroom.
Kathleen Germs said she walked away from teaching in classrooms last June. She said it was a hard decision, but that it was heartbreaking to see kids not get the support they need. Increasing student needs and complexities in the classroom made it too difficult to do her job, she said.
"I was dealing with all these diverse needs in my classroom and I couldn't keep up with it. I felt like a failure every day," Germs said.
Germs said a lack of support staff makes things difficult for teachers. She told a story about one student that would be violent.
"I had no support. I had to be holding the student and rocking them while I was trying to teach," she said.
She said a lack of support hurts both the students who need extra help and the more advanced students, who the teachers can't devote as much time to as a result.
Germs said she's proud to see teachers walking out.
"We just want safe classrooms," she said. "Right now, classrooms are not safe and learning is not taking place."
Education minister disappointed by strike
Provincial Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the government was disappointed in the union's decision to strike over classroom size and complexity.
"The place for determining solutions for those issues is not at the bargaining table," Cockrill told host Leisha Grebinski in an interview with CBC Radio's Blue Sky.
He said classroom sizes should be determined by the province's 27 locally elected school boards.
Cockrill said disrupting learning is not in the best interest of students. He said the government is willing to work with teachers, but that the union's current ask is unreasonable.
NDP Leader Carla Beck said in a statement that she's disappointed that the province is refusing to bargain on items the teachers are calling for.
"Everyone could see this strike coming from miles away and the premier still did nothing to prevent it," the Opposition leader said in the statement.
"Other provinces like Ontario and British Columbia worked collaboratively with teachers to avoid strikes. It didn't have to come to this."
Beck and other NDP MLAs joined teachers at the picket lines Tuesday.
Gage Haubrich, Prairie director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the province is spending more on education than ever before. He said the union has the right to sit at the bargaining table, but that taxpayers should have all the facts when making decisions about who they want to support.
He noted the province is offering a seven per cent salary increase for teachers, but that the STF also wants to negotiate on government spending on class sizes.
"Teachers can't have their cake and eat it too," Haubrich said in a statement. "When half of school division budgets are spent paying teachers, it doesn't leave room for much else."
Parent weighs in on needs in classrooms
Elsie Hartnett, a mother of three in Saskatoon, said her kids are suffering because there are other children with greater needs.
"That was the case for my daughter last year — [there were] some kids that had high needs, and they weren't getting enough support and ended up just kind of disrupting the experience for everyone," she said.
Hartnett works from home, and had to move around some clients to accommodate the strike on Tuesday, but said she fully supports the teachers going on strike to get better treatment.
"I think that would be more disheartening for me as a parent to hear that the people who are with my kids six hours a day aren't willing to fight for them," Hartnett said.
"I'm in total support of them doing it, and I'll deal with the inconveniences. I'll reach out to my friends and offer to help with their kids."
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With files from The Morning Edition, Leisha Grebinski and Parastoo Dokouhaki