Listen to teacher concerns: NDP education critic
There should be a democratic process and a "healthy discussion" around what the teachers are asking for before considering to legislate teachers back to work, says NDP education critic and Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky.
"The Liberal government tried to do a unanimous consent to slip the bill through right away, and we just can't support that," said Gretzky.
The Ontario Liberals tabled teacher back-to-work legislation Monday, but high school students in strike districts won't be back to school Tuesday morning.
The NDP didn't support the legislation that needed unanimous consent to pass.
"We certainly don't want students out," said Gretzky. "We would rather them in the classrooms learning and the teachers would rather frankly be in the class rooms teaching, but when we're talking about future generations of students and issues that they're going to face because of what the government is proposing, teachers are standing up and saying this is not good for kids."
In Peel, Durham and Sudbury-area boards 70,000 students have been out of class for three to five weeks.
Gretzky wants the government to listen to the teachers' concerns. Just because teachers are coming to the table it doesn't mean there are negotiations happening, she said.
"If you look at what the government is proposing, they're talking about increasing class sizes. They're talking about reducing resources for the classrooms,"said Gretsky.
She said the Greater Essex County District School Board has lost 21 early child educators because of cuts to funding,
Gretzky also mentioned teachers' concerns around having class sizes as big as 40 students, which she said would make it hard to provide individualized learning to each student.
It might now be next week before students are back in class.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled that the strike is putting their school year in jeopardy.
