Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee District Secondary School teachers and support staff picketed in front of the school Wednesday, part of a province wide one-day strike by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF).
“(The Ontario government) has barely come to the table,” said Carol Chmay, NDSS teacher and co-strike captain. “There was one day where they were at the table for 29 minutes I think, out of the entire day. Obviously we need to get our point across that increasing class sizes, taking away class size caps and instituting mandatory e-learning are not acceptable.”
Among the issues of contention is the Ontario government’s plan to require all high school students to take some online courses in order to graduate.
“The forced e-learning was four, now they’re generously dropping it down to two,” added Lisa McGowan, NDSS teacher and co-strike captain. “We know from experience, we do have optional e-learning already, it’s not for everybody. There’s a very high course drop rate in e-learning and not all kids are going to be able to do it.”
Chmay also added that kids in Greater Napanee’s rural communities in particular could struggle finding access to high speed internet.
“They haven’t even said who is going to be teaching these courses,” Chmay said of the online courses. “Is this the first step towards privatization? They haven’t given enough information to even remotely get behind (online courses). There’s no good data to support that e-learning is good for students.”
As for class sizes, McGowan says a lot of NDSS’ classes are currently over the maximum. She also said cuts to funding had led to fewer courses offered at the school.
“We had to cancel 30 (courses), I think we got three back so we only lost 27,” said McGowan. “But that’s only this year. If the average keeps increasing, we’re going to lose more and more and more. That’s part of what we’re fighting for. It’s not acceptable.”
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce, in a statement released on the province’s website on Thursday, says the government has made concessions in an effort to reach a deal.
“Our Government has demonstrated consistently it is reasonable and student-centric by making major moves that have not been matched or reciprocated by the teachers’ unions,” Lecce’s statement reads.”In fact, on the days we made reasonable offers – reducing class room sizes from 28 to 25 and reducing online learning courses from four to two – the unions decided to escalate. This is wrong, and our students deserve better.”
Lecce says the government is willing to come to the table.
“I call on OSSTF to remain at the bargaining table, with third-party, independent mediation, up until the deadline,” the statement continued. “All parties that are truly committed to the success of our children will consider every tool available to avoid strikes which hurt our students…Our government will never leave the table and continue to remain available 24/7 to reach a deal that keeps students in class.”
Classes are expected to resume as normal today, though OSSTF staff will continue to withdraw certain services as part of ongoing job actions.
Wednesday’s one-day strike was the first time since 1997 that OSSTF members had gone on strike. They’ve been without a contract since the end of August.