There is nothing more important than the education of our children and your government is working to ensure our kids get the best start in life.
Smaller class sizes give students more one-on-one time with their teachers and that’s a big key to success in the early years.
To help reach our goals, we’ve committed to capping class sizes to 20 students in kindergarten to Grade 3. We’re working with an advisory committee made up of teachers, trustees, superintendents, parents and school business officials to implement the class size cap.
The committee recommended we follow the Ontario model and implement a flexible cap whereby 90 per cent of K-3 classes in a school division must have no more than 20 students per class, while 10 per cent of K3 classes within a school division may have up to 23 students per class.
We want this process to go as smoothly as possible, so we’re working closely with all school divisions. 2012-13 will primarily be a planning year for the class size initiative and divisions can use initial funding to hire additional teachers, provide professional development for teachers and develop plans for achieving class size reductions in future years.
Moving forward, we are committed to funding up to $20 million in operating and $85 million in capital where it is most needed by 2017.
High quality public education is an investment in our children and in the future prosperity of our province. We know capping class sizes in the early years will contribute to the success of our young people now and into the future.
Nancy Allan
Manitoba Minister of Education
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition July 21, 2012
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Posted by:Bandb
July 21, 2012 at 12:25 PM
I have no problem capping class sizes, as soon as you start capping tax increases to those paying for it. Quid pro quo.