Premier Smith not listening to education concerns, ATA says

The Alberta government says it will spend more on schools in the upcoming budget. Mason DePatie reports.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) says the UCP government isn’t on the same page when it comes to priorities in classrooms and more needs to be done to address education needs.

ATA President Jason Schilling told CTV News Tuesday that although the government has been taking action to improve classroom conditions, such as with the addition of classroom complexity teams, they have been highlighting issues for longer than the current government has been in office.

“We have been doing this pulse survey with our membership since 2020 and have been highlighting these issues and concerns with government, who just started collecting class size composition data last fall after not doing it for six years,” Schilling said.

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The priority concerns of classroom complexity set out by the ATA in their latest pulse survey are:

• social or emotional;
• behavioural;
• cognitive;
• English as a second language, English as an additional language, or English language learners; and
• socioeconomic.

“Teachers have indicated for many years that the social, emotional growth of students is a big factor, as well as behavioral, cognitive and then dealing with the conditions around trying to meet the needs of students who might have English as a second language coming into schools as well,” Schilling said.

During Premier Danielle Smith’s address to Albertans on Feb. 19, the government identified English language learners as being a higher priority for classroom complexity.

“Although sustainable immigration has always been an important part of our provincial growth model, throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems,” Smith said.

“Is it any wonder that our teachers and students are struggling so much with classroom complexity and crowding?”

‘Creating cracks’

While data from Alberta Education indicates that there has been a huge increase in the number of international students entering the provincial school system, Schilling says the government has a knack for acting surprised about the figures.

International and interprovincial migration (Source: Alberta Education)

Migration of school aged children aged 5 to 18 years – Alberta

“We’ve been pointing it out all along that the funding that they’ve been providing in the budget does not meet enrollment growth (and) does not meet inflationary pressures as well,” Schillng said.

“So, when you have 14,000 new students coming in that might be English language learners, show us the corresponding number of the number of teachers and educational assistants speech specialists that have been hired to deal with those numbers because the government wasn’t doing it.

“They weren’t hiring the people to deal with these. They just put the students in the schools and said, ‘Well, what we have now will be good enough,’ and it’s not. It hasn’t been. It’s creating cracks that students are slipping through.”

Schilling also said, it is ATA policy, according to the Charter of Human Rights, to ensure any student, no matter their immigration status, is guaranteed an education.

“I’m extremely concerned about the government scapegoating a certain group of individuals in terms of funding and this is the problem within our schools,” he said.

“Schools, public education, has the responsibility to teach everybody who shows up at their door, and government has a responsibility to provide those services.”

Teachers take time to learn too: Schilling

A teachers’ conference in Calgary wrapped up just last week and Schilling said many teachers use that time as an opportunity to build their skills to help students learn.

Much of that learning has included teaching students whose first language is not English.

“I’ve worked myself in schools with English language learners and have been looking for professional development opportunities in order to enhance my teaching practice. With that, teachers do it all the time. It’s one of the key things around teachers’ conventions,” he said.

In a statement to CTV News, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides admitted that the government and the ATA do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to classroom complexities, but he said “the goals are the same.”

“(We are) getting students the supports they need, sending help into complex classrooms, reducing class sizes and making sure teachers are safe from aggression at work. I am confident these first steps will help address classroom complexity and reduce class sizes, with additional supports on the way.”

Schilling said however the misalignment came to be, it’s what the ATA has been reporting to the government for years.

“They finally just collected the class size data that corroborates everything that we’ve been saying all along.”

ATA ‘skeptical’ about government action

During the address, Smith mentioned she is interested in listening to Albertans, going as far as posing nine referendum questions that would be asked of residents in October.

Schilling said he and his colleagues are “skeptical” about whether the premier is listening to the concerns of Albertans.

“We went on strike for three weeks in October and were ordered back and put back into our classrooms with the exact same learning conditions that were existing before the strike, so teachers don’t feel like they’ve been heard,” he said.

“We need to see government make more than just announcements at a podium in terms of funding but actually need to see them putting this money into action so that our classrooms are seeing a difference, and so teachers, I think, are rightfully justified in their skepticism.

“It’s up to government now to prove that they are listening.”