‘It’s an impossible situation:’ STF to hold rally in Regina on Saturday

Large numbers of kids in classrooms, a lack of funding, and overextended staff — those are some of the reasons the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) will hold a rally outside the Legislative Building in Regina on Saturday.

The rally is scheduled to last from noon to 1 p.m.

“We’re expecting thousands of people to show up. But not just people from Regina, we’re expecting people from across the province to come and talk about the challenges that we’re seeing in schools,” STF president Samantha Becotte told guest host Kevin Martel on Friday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

“It’s going to include students (and) parents, and teachers themselves obviously will be there. But we’re calling on government too to show us a reinvestment in public education because our kids are a priority to us and we need government to see them as a priority as well.

“But unfortunately, this current budget just shows that they’re turning their backs on our kids.”

The provincial government’s budget is providing $2 billion to Saskatchewan’s 27 school divisions for school operating funds.

Becotte said teachers have been doing their best to adjust to the changing landscape of education in Saskatchewan over the past decade.

“It’s getting unmanageable, and it’s an impossible situation that teachers are put in to become everything that the education sector should be,” Becotte said.

“They’re being counsellors, they’re being speech language pathologists (and) they’re trying to do targeted reports, but when you have over 30 students in your class and you have many of those (students) who have intense needs, without additional support it’s impossible to do that.”

Becotte argued that parents shouldn’t have to go to the private sector to access services that should be offered under the public sector, but aren’t due to a lack of funding.

She was also asked about the potential implementation of standardized testing in Saskatchewan.

“Assessing students is an important part of what teachers do but it is such a small part of the whole picture,” Becotte said.

“We need to be focusing on the learning rather than putting in really ineffective assessment measures that take up teachers’ time and take away time that they could be spending focusing on their students and focusing on meeting those needs.”

Becotte said the government’s proclamations about growth don’t reflect its commitments to education.

“Thinking that people are coming to Saskatchewan without kids is a little bit illogical,” she said. “We need to see education budgets keep up with the pace of enrolment.”

She said the education budget also needs to keep up with inflation.

Becotte said an increase that is less than one per cent of the education budget is inadequate with inflation being high as it is. As of March, the national inflation rate was 4.3 per cent.

“And that’s just this year,” she said. “Looking at the last decade, education has fallen so far behind that the Fraser Institute says we are $400 million behind because of not keeping up with inflation in education.”