With school violence on the rise, teachers say cuts will further strain classrooms

The head of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union says cuts to the education sector will cause more strain at a time when violence in schools is on the rise.

Department of Education data shows that violent incidents have been increasing significantly over the past five years of available data, ending the 2024-25 academic year. There were 27,117 violent incidents recorded in the 2024-25 school year, up from 21,409 cases reported the year before and 17,234 incidents reported in 2022-23, the department said Tuesday.

“We’re having students who are biting, scratching, throwing different objects around the room, classrooms are being evacuated. And these students need support,” Peter Day, president of the teachers union, said in an interview Wednesday.

Day said reducing class sizes and ramping up support for students in classrooms is needed to reduce incidents of violence.

“But then you look at the recent cuts that have come out of this budget, we’re going in the exact opposite direction,” he said.

The Department of Education is reducing three per cent of school staff as part of broader cuts to the public service, which will impact 147 education jobs. The province is eliminating 69 positions, such as literary specialists and math coaches, across the school system.

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Education Minister Brendan Maguire said last week these 69 teachers will not lose their jobs, they will be moved into traditional classroom settings.

In addition to these 69 redeployed teachers, another eight vacant Nova Scotia Teachers Union roles will be eliminated, and a speech language pathologist vacancy will not be filled for one year.

“There’s 78 NSTU members that are impacted, and most of them are being redeployed back into the classroom,” Maguire told reporters after a cabinet meeting last week.

Day said it would appear the department playing “a game of musical chairs” with these roles as a way of trying to hide the impact of these budget cuts.

The minister said the change will not have a negative impact on the province’s ongoing efforts to address violence in schools.

The province released an updated code of conduct guide to address violence in April 2025, following the June 2024 release of an auditor general report that found training and prevention measures have failed to keep pace with a sharp rise in school violence in Nova Scotia.

“We know that teachers do an incredible job. They work under difficult situations and we’re going to do everything we can to support them in the classroom,” Maguire said at the time.

Day said it’s a mistake to reduce the number of teachers working in the school system “at a time where we need more support in classrooms, not less. This is only going to put a bigger strain on classrooms across Nova Scotia.”

He said students who may be struggling to meet academic outcomes or require additional support are those who will suffer most through these position cuts.

Despite multiple requests for an interview with Maguire, the department instead provided a statement Friday saying the province is reducing some administrative positions and is “redeploying resources into roles that more directly support students.”

Spokesperson Krista Higdon also said 80 per cent of the recorded violent incidents are happening at the elementary school level, and 64 per cent of violent incidents “had no impact or a minor impact on school operations and overall safety.”

She also said the department’s safe school strategy includes school-wide behaviour expectations, emergency management planning and “responsive pathways” for student behaviour intervention.

2:06 Rise in school violence across Nova Scotia leads province to update code of conduct