STF Members Voice Concerns
On January 11, 2024 Saskatchewan teachers announced a five-day countdown leading up to a one-day provincewide strike which was held on Tuesday, January 16. The legal requirement for notice of job action is 48 hours. The teachers initiated this five-day countdown to provide families with advance notice and extra time to prepare.
Local teachers, staff and supporters made their way to either Yorkton, Melville or Canora to picket outside of their respective MLA offices.
The Saskatchewan Teachers Federation clarified that they are taking strike action due to the government not wanting to negotiate on “class size and complexity, even after the Conciliation Board indicated support for teachers’ position that class size and complexity can be addressed through bargaining”.
The STF stated on Wednesday, January 17th that further job action is on the way. “With the Government of Saskatchewan still refusing to give their bargaining committee a new mandate to negotiate on key issues, Saskatchewan teachers are beginning a new five-day countdown to further job action. If the government does not get serious about true negotiations and change course, the next job action will begin on Monday, January 22. Specific information relating to this job action will be shared no less than 48 hours prior.”
“In 2015-16, Saskatchewan’s per student funding was first in Canada. We are now in eighth place. It’s a problem of the government’s own creation, by failing to properly fund public education. It’s taken years to create this problem, and we know it won’t be fixed overnight. But the longer government ignores it, the more it grows,” said Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation President Samantha Becotte.
Government Funding Specialized Classroom Project
The provincial government put forth new educational legislation on January 8th regarding class complexity.
A press release mentioned that Saskatchewan school divisions will soon be piloting a new specialized support classroom focusing on helping staff manage and de-escalate behavioural incidents. The Government of Saskatchewan is providing a $3.6 million investment to fund the pilot in eight school divisions, which begins this February and runs until the end of the 2024-25 school year.
“We have heard from Saskatchewan teachers that they need to spend more of their time teaching rather than managing disruptive behaviour,” Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said. “This pilot aims to support students to continue their studies uninterrupted but also assists students who need targeted interventions in the short-term.”
The pilot will provide a classroom with specialized supports to help students practice self-regulation skills while also addressing the impacts of disruptions in the home classroom. The specialized support classroom setting will be staffed by a minimum of one teacher and two educational assistants. The space will have capacity for 15 students and may use other supports from staff as needed, like psychologists and counsellors.
The pilot aims to provide long-term solutions to evaluate targeted intervention methods and increase teacher capacity to manage complex classrooms. All of the school divisions selected are in urban areas and they will choose their participating schools.
The province is also piloting a new Teacher Innovation and Support Fund to foster local, teacher-led solutions while addressing classroom and student needs. This $2.5 million pilot project will run until the end of the 2024-25 school year and will begin immediately. This funding will allow teachers to work with their school administration to apply for up to $75,000 to put toward their ideas.