Ontario Liberals have promised to limit the size of classes to 20 students for each class across the province if elected.
Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca says this will ensure that every student gets the focus and attention they deserve.
Liberals say they will hire 10,000 teachers to reach the hard line, hiring some from other provinces and helping qualified teachers immigrate to Ontario. The party says it will also work to attract some of Ontario’s 80,000 certified teachers, who are said not to be currently employed in schools, back to teaching.
At a morning press conference, Del Duca declined to commit to a specific timetable for lower class sizes, but said the promise would have “the full weight of the prime minister and prime minister’s office” behind it.
“In terms of teachers, 10,000 is a big number. But that’s the right number, “Del Duca said.
“We acknowledge that it will take some time,” Del Duca continued, adding that the goal would be explicitly included in a mandate letter to the Liberal Minister of Education.
He said the liberal government would start prioritizing the schools that already have the largest number of classes and those schools in neighborhoods that are particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Del Duca also stressed that the Liberals’ proposal is a strict limit for each classroom, rather than an average of 20 students per province, which means that some classes have significantly more students.
In addition, the Liberals have promised to end the mandatory two-credit graduation requirement introduced by the government of the Progressive Conservatives.
The NDP has promised to introduce a ceiling of 24 students for grades 4 to 8 and to hire 20,000 teachers and educators if elected in June.
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