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Selinger touts class-size cap

20-student limit for early grades

By: Larry Kusch

Posted: 09/3/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Premier Greg Selinger meets with members of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society during an appearance Friday. (HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ) Photo Store

The Selinger New Democrats are prepared to bet big bucks that students will do better in school if class sizes are kept small in their early years.

On Friday, Premier Greg Selinger announced that, if re-elected, he would cap the number of students in Manitoba classrooms from kindergarten through Grade 3 at 20. The government would implement the proposal over five years.

The initiative would require 240 more teachers at a cost of about $20 million per year -- plus school expansions totalling $85 million.

The idea is that smaller class sizes will provide teachers with more opportunity to give each student more individual attention. If they get that extra attention early in their school career, it will have lasting positive benefits as they enter the later grades.

"It's based on the research that we've seen that smaller class sizes really allow more attention for the students at a time when they're getting their learning patterns established," Selinger said Friday.

He chose the Manitoba Teachers' Society headquarters as the site for the election campaign announcement, and the reception was friendly.

"I'm, frankly, twitching, I'm so excited about the potential this has in terms of Manitoba schools and the kids that we're teaching," said MTS president Paul Olson. "The Jets coming back to Winnipeg was big; this is huge. This will be a game-changer."

Selinger said the NDP would begin implementing the class-size cap in 2012. It would seek advice from the same committee that helped it devise its common report card for Manitoba schools.

The province estimates roughly half the classes in Manitoba last year with kindergarten-to-Grade 3 kids were larger than the proposed 20-student cap.

"For many classes it would represent a significant reduction," said Olson. "I have colleagues who have taught 30 kids in Grade 2."

The proposal also received the endorsement of the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils on Friday. "It really parallels the research and the best practices out there for engaging kids at an early age," said the organization's president, Judith Cameron.

But the organization that represents school trustees was more guarded in its reaction to the proposal.

"I think there is a common perception that smaller (class size) is better. It remains to be seen how small you have to go to get a real noticeable impact," said Carolyn Duhamel, executive director of the Manitoba School Boards Association.

Duhamel said there are several other factors in addition to class size that influence student performance. "It's about how teachers teach," she said, and the composition of the class itself, including whether there are special needs students.

Duhamel said "time will tell" whether the proposal, if implemented by a re-elected NDP government, is a good use of money. She said it will be important to track student performance upon implementation to ensure that the initiative is indeed producing results.

Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard said his party is "generally supportive" of class-size limits, but administrators would have to be flexible to ensure that students with special needs are properly accommodated.

Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen would not comment directly on the NDP's plan. Instead, he said the NDP promised to end hallway medicine and did not, arguing there is little reason to believe the party would keep a promise to cap class sizes.

-- with files from Mary Agnes Welch

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 3, 2011 A4

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