High school students heading back to class this September will now have to endure larger class sizes and fewer course options..
Toronto District School Boards says there aren't enough funds left to run all the programs currently available to High School students. 313 classes will be cancelled as a result of the province's new education plan.
The cancellation will take effect during the 2019-2020 school year. More changes are expected to be announced as the governments plan roles out.
Students will also see an increase in class sizes from 22 students to 28. TSDB officials say courses like academic and applied programs will now have to be combined to ensure that students meet all their requirements to graduate.
“We are trying to maintain courses where we can because we want to make sure we offer as many choices to kids as possible, but as you’ll see in some cases it could not be avoided to cancel some of these courses,” TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said.
The TSBD is also projecting a loss of teaching jobs because of the class sizes increase. An estimated total of 3,000 teachers are expected to lose their jobs in the next four years.
When it comes to students, the TSDB has promised to work with students to figure out which classes should be cancelled and left alone. Compulsory classes like Math, English, Science, and Geography, won't be impacted heavily by the changes.
“The compulsory courses will continue to be offered, however perhaps at a school let’s says there are three sections of one course… two of them may be cancelled and one may continue. So the subject itself may be taught at the school, but there will be fewer sections or fewer classes of it,” Bird said.
By: Niza Nondo
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