They were all smiling on a bright spring day, however a group of approximately 50 sign-carrying St. Mary’s College students, having walked out of school just after 1 p.m. Thursday, had a serious message of concern to send to the provincial government over changes to the education system.
St. Mary’s students planned and coordinated the walkout (joining fellow students from approximately 800 schools across Ontario Thursday, including Algoma District School Board schools, the province-wide walkouts and protests stemming from a viral post by Listowel, Ont. grade 12 student Natalie Moore).
Teachers were not involved in the walkouts, student protesters at St. Mary’s receiving permission to take part in the walkout with parental consent, but participating students not allowed to re-enter the school for the rest of the day.
“Changes from the government are going to affect most of us directly as well as future high school students coming up...increased class sizes (due to possible layoffs of teachers) means there won’t be as much one on one with your teacher any more,” said St. Mary’s College Grade 11 student Eila Wigmore, speaking to SooToday.
Teachers unions have said some class sizes could increase to up to 40 students in a classroom with the government’s class size changes.
The government has also stipulated it wants high school students to take a total of four courses online throughout Grades 9 to 12.
“The e-learning, that’s big, that’s huge...it won’t affect us because we’re graduating next year but I have younger siblings who’ll be affected by that,” said Megan Morgenstern, Wigmore’s Grade 11 classmate.
“Kids learn in different ways, and it should be your choice the way you want to learn,” Morgenstern said.
“It’s the fact we don’t have the option. It’s the fact that future students will be forced to take these online courses, and I find a lot of students struggle when they’re not with the teacher for that one-on-one instruction. It’s more stressful when you’re learning by yourself,” Wigmore said.
“Another thing we’re protesting is cuts to the grants for university. That’s really going to affect us. Grants are money given to us based on academics. I get really good grades and I was hoping to get grants to help with the cost of my schooling, but they’re getting rid of a lot of that so a lot of us are going to have to heavily rely on OSAP, which is going to put us in debt in the future,” Wigmore said.
Teachers unions were not involved in the student protest, however, union officials voiced their support.
“Students have the right to have their voices heard, and today they have chosen to exercise their right by peacefully protesting the proposed changes the Ford government wants to make to education. The students are very aware of the negative impact the proposed cuts to education will have on their education...the scope of this walkout is impressive and speaks to how much we should not underestimate our youth,” wrote Darrell Czop, Huron Superior Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) president, in an email to SooToday.
“I’m very proud of our students who are exercising their right to have their voices heard and exercise their democratic rights. I’m inspired by them,” said Malini Leahy, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) District 2 Algoma teachers bargaining unit president.
Meanwhile, Joe Santa Maria, Algoma District School Board (ADSB) superintendent of education, addressed the matter of local reports of as many as 175 ADSB teachers face layoff in September as a result of increased class sizes.
“It’s far too early for us to be even mentioning layoffs in our system...we probably won’t know until May or June once the Grants for Student Needs (GSNs, from the province) are in our hands. Until that time we have to meet all of our collective agreement processes internally. We’re going through that process right now,” Santa Maria said in a telephone interview Thursday.
As for that figure of 175 teachers, Santa Maria said “we have announced several more people as ‘surplus to the system,’ based on the uncertainty of what the GSNs will say. That’s not a layoff notice. We’re not going to lose 175 teachers. That’s not going to happen.”
“(That number is in place only just) until the Grants for Student Needs funding is announced in late April or early May,” Santa Maria, said, adding the ADSB is looking at a healthy enrolment number for the 2019-2020 school year.
“Our board does not know yet if any teachers will be laid off next year. Our staffing process differs from other boards. We have not yet received any budget information and so have not begun our staffing process,” wrote Jim Fitzpatrick, Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) communications officer, in an email to SooToday.