Alberta students head back to larger class sizes

EDMONTON- Students across the province are preparing to head back to class next week. And many of them will be heading back to larger class sizes.

“Overall, the averages are up a little bit. Our numbers are going to be higher at every grade level,” said Scott Millar, Principal of Johnny Bright School in southwest Edmonton.

Classes at Johnny Bright School start on Tuesday. This year, the school will see nearly 900 Kindergarten to Grade 7 students walk through its doors. And the school is no stranger to overcrowding; it recently moved its Grade 8 and 9 students to D.S. Mackenzie Junior High School. 

“We’re not blind to the fact that we’re going to have challenges, that our classes are going to be large, larger than we’d like. But that’s balanced with we’re not in it alone,” Millar explained.

There are about 11,000 new students heading back to class in our province this year. But due to budget restraints, the Alberta Teachers’ Association says there will be fewer teachers for those students.

“We’re projecting low estimates of about 240 teaching positions going. So with that kind of student population increasing, along with teachers declining, you end up with the simple math of crowded classes,” said ATA President Mark Ramsankar.

“We are going to see larger class sizes across the divisions.”

Ramsankar says many classrooms will have more than 30 students in them.

“High schools, we’ve seen classes as high as 40 plus,” he added. “It’s physically impossible to support the individual needs of children when you have that many students in a classroom.”

Edmonton mother Kelly Schulte says registering her daughter for kindergarten at Michael Strembitsky Elementary School in south Edmonton has been a challenge.

“It’s been crazy, trying to get mornings or afternoons. Mornings are really hard to get into, there’s eight kindergarten classes next year. That’s almost 200 kids just in kindergarten.”

Despite larger class sizes province-wide, Millar says he’s not going to let it impact the quality of education students at Johnny Bright receive.

“I don’t think we’re in dire straits. I have a leadership team here that are telegraphing out to every one of these teachers that we’re going to see things through together, that there are supports from the district that we know we’re going to be able to access.”

In June, Alberta’s Education Minister, Jeff Johnson, said once final enrollment numbers are calculated, more money could be made available this fall.

Follow @CaleyRamsay

With files from Laurel Clark, Global News.