BC teachers want review of class size, composition 2011, workplace, teachers, hoping

tiffiant

BC teachers want review of class size, composition
Education Minister is optimistic about legislation
News1130 Staff/The Canadian Press Oct 11, 2011 07:04:09 AM
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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The union representing BC teachers is hoping to get clarification on how it negotiates workplace conditions.  The BCTF wants two pieces of legislation scrapped.

Bills 27 and 28 restrict teachers from negotiating class size and composition.  The union says last April's ruling should result in the laws being scrapped as a judge found they violated the BCTF's constitutional rights.

"In our view, the obligation of government is that that legislation be repealed.  Government has a very, very different interpretation," says union president Susan Lambert.

However, Education Minister George Abbott feels the government can discuss those two issues without losing the legislation.

"They did not say we need to recreate the world, they said we need to engage in a process which should aim at [the] remediation [of] the issues arising from Bill 27 and 28."

Abbott adds Victoria has begun a process that includes an offer to improve class composition over a three-year period.

tiffiant

http://bctf.ca/
http://www.gov.bc.ca/bced/

Lik

The provincial government is really getting a failing grade on this issue because the province itself has legislated class size limits, including the number of special needs students in each class. And yet it continues to ignore those very same legislations that it has enacted, cramming more students into the classroom. East Side (Vancouver) schools, in particular, are especially hit hard with this because unlike the West Side schools, they do not have the ability to raise funds through PTA and other activities to relieve the school's financial pressures.

-Lik