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Details on Ontario's Reduction in Class Sizes Expected By December: McGuinty

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

TORONTO (CP) - Parents will get an idea later this month whether the Ontario government's bid to shrink class sizes are on track, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday amid concerns they won't fully know whether their kids are doing better until after the next election.

By mid-September, the province will begin posting the preliminary results of its class-size reduction efforts on the Education Ministry's website at www.edu.gov.on.ca, McGuinty told a news conference Tuesday to mark the first day of classes.

McGuinty has pledged that nine out of 10 classes from junior kindergarten through Grade 3 will have 20 students or less by the start of the 2007-08 school year, just one month before the next provincial election in early October 2007.

The plan allows 10 per cent of those classes to have up to three additional students each to help accommodate student transfers over the course of a school year.

Education Minister Gerard Kennedy said roughly 95 per cent of school boards in Ontario have submitted their initial class-size numbers for the new school year, which will be part of a "detailed" report the province will release by December on whether the reduction target is on track.

However, there are concerns Ontario voters won't have final numbers on that or other provincial education targets before they return to the polls.

The premier's office confirmed Tuesday that the government will not have results of another promise - having 75 per cent of Grade 6 students meet or exceed provincial standards - until 2008, months after the next election.

"Parents have a right to be skeptical," Kennedy said, noting that class-size reductions and improvements in educational excellence both take time.

"This is a complicated system with a lot of students and a lot of factors at work. But we do feel we're going to get there and I'm looking forward to be able to show that through the website."

The premier said Ontario residents will have plenty of information to judge the province's progress on the education file before they cast ballots.

"We're prepared to be accountable for that in a way that no government ever has before," McGuinty said during his visit to a Toronto elementary school classroom.

"People can check us out online. They'll be able to check out their own school online and find out what is happening to class sizes in their school."

Kennedy, who joined McGuinty at Tuesday's event, said the province is being "very transparent" about its education agenda.

He estimated that about 70 per cent of all students in junior kindergarten to Grade 3 are in classes with fewer students than there would have been in 2003-04. The government said 381,000 primary students are in smaller classes this year compared to 137,000 two years ago.

Smaller classes mean more teachers, says the Liberal government, which claims it's spending $126 million this year, in addition to $90 million last year, to help school boards hire 1,100 teachers to reduce class sizes at 1,300 elementary schools.

McGuinty also rejected claims from opposition critics that the government has oversimplified the province's curriculum in order to increase the number of Grade 6 students who meet or exceed provincial standards.

McGuinty said the improvements will be the result of more teachers, better training and more support for students to ensure they succeed and that the province's "unacceptable" 30 per cent high school dropout rate comes down.

Source: Canadian Press

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