Alberta students rally for teachers as strike deadline looms

Students from several Edmonton high schools walked out of class Monday to protest large class sizes and call for higher pay for teachers. Marek Tkach reports.

EDMONTON — Dozens of students played hooky from school Monday to rally for teachers at Alberta’s legislature as a provincewide strike deadline nears.

They shouted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, where did the budget go?” and waved signs in solidarity with the 51,000 teachers represented by the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

One student stood with a sign that said: “I would rather be learning, but instead I’m here teaching (the government) a lesson.”

Nyla Ahmadzai, a rally organizer, said students from across Edmonton skipped classes to raise awareness about the difficult conditions teachers and students are learning in.

“My class sizes range from 37 students to 42 students,” the 16-year-old said.

“It really makes the teacher’s job harder, and it makes our job to learn even harder.”

The government and the teachers’ union remain at the bargaining table trying to hammer out a new collective agreement ahead of the union’s Oct. 6 strike deadline.

The union’s main issues have been about salary and overcrowded classes.

The United Conservative Party government has said part of its offer is to hire thousands more teachers and build more schools to deal with overcrowding. In a previous offer, it promised to deliver a 12 per cent wage increase over four years.

Both sides have embarked on separate advertising campaigns to share their messages.

Opposition NDP education critic Amanda Chapman, in a statement about the walkout, said she “got chills” at the turnout.

“We are two weeks away from a deadline to avoid a teachers’ strike and all we’ve heard from the UCP government is attacks on teachers and the intention to use the notwithstanding clause to stomp on students’ rights,” Chapman said.

An internal government memo leaked last week says the province plans to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to override court challenges to a suite of laws affecting transgender youth.

“Albertans deserve a government that will restore our education system to what it used to be – the best in the world," Chapman said.

Quin Bergman, another rally organizer who uses they/them pronouns, said they’re aware of the government’s offers and support teachers continuing to fight for more.

“Teachers shouldn’t be settling for less,” Bergman said.

Bergman said they have more than 35 students in each class. As a Grade 11 student, they’re also concerned about how classroom conditions might affect upcoming university applications.

Teachers are assigning more group projects because they don’t have time to grade individual assignments, Bergman said. Their grades have taken a hit.

Bergman said they miss having class discussions. Teachers have been too busy and there’s never enough time to talk.

“Things like that aren’t fostering a proper learning environment,” Bergman said.

Along with overcrowded classes, Bergman and Ahmadzai said other recent controversial government policies have added to tensions this year, including a ban on school library books deemed to have inappropriate sexual content, as well as pronoun and gender laws.

One law requires children under 16 to have parental consent to change their names or pronouns at school. The other requires students to confirm their gender at birth before they can participate in female amateur sports.

“Many students have parents who are not supportive of transgender people, are not supportive of their kids changing their names or pronouns at school,” Bergman said.

“Anti-trans laws are making students have an extremely difficult time discovering self-identity, having safe spaces at school. It’s just ridiculous.”

Ahmadzai said it was “insane” she had to confirm she’s a girl to try out for rugby this year.

“Hundreds of students around the city are coming together because they just think what the government is doing is wrong.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2025.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press