VANCOUVER - B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender says he hopes the relationship between teachers and the province can be healed over the next five years of labour peace under the hard-fought new contract.

Teachers are returning to their classrooms today after voting 86 per cent in favour of a six-year agreement that brought down picket lines.

Students will go back to school Monday or Tuesday, depending on individual school districts.

But Fassbender says an ongoing court case between the province and the B.C. Teachers' Federation over class-size and composition will have to play out.

The province's appeal of two previous court losses will be heard next month.

The education minister says provincial exams may have to be rescheduled but classes will not be extended to make up for the three weeks of the new school year that teachers were on strike.