Class sizes, more students with complex needs among teachers’ biggest challenges: survey

New research suggests it’s no longer unusual for seven or more students with “complex needs” to be learning in a public school classroom in Manitoba.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society released findings on Monday from a survey of 3,370 members conducted by Probe Research between January 22 and February 17.

The overwhelming majority of participants reported class size and complexity, as well as a lack of support to manage them, are their top challenges.

“We are very concerned for our teachers’s well-being and their mental health and burnout rates, as well.”

Union president Lillian Klausen said classroom teachers are now expected — on top of their usual responsibilities — to be school counsellors, social workers and clinicians.

“We are very concerned for our teachers’s well-being and their mental health and burnout rates, as well. We understand that we can’t be all of those things for all of the students coming in,” Klausen said.

All of the union’s 17,000 members, including principals and educational consultants, were invited to participate in the online study.

Participants — 68 per cent of whom identified as current classroom or subject teachers — were polled on their workloads, job satisfaction levels and, if applicable, classroom composition.

Eight in 10 of the 2,294 front-line teacher respondents reported classroom complexity has increased over the last five years.

At the same time, 63 per cent of this group reported a decline in educational support.

More than three-quarters of them indicated their students are not receiving the supports they require.

Asked about the makeup of their classrooms, 48 per cent indicated they have more than six students who they’d describe as having complex needs or requiring extra attention or support.

Just under a quarter of the workforce reported that reality in a similar survey conducted in 2024. That figure was eight per cent in a 2017 edition.

The latest survey did not define complex needs, but the term is widely understood in education circles to refer to students who require extra learning, socio-emotional or communication support.

Klausen noted that these children may have severe mental-health challenges or experience difficulty regulating their emotions compared to their peers.

The union’s findings suggest this population has nearly tripled over the last decade.

“We know that the need is great. We know that students need support and our government is a very education-focused government,” Education Minister Tracy Schmidt told reporters when she was asked about the survey results Monday.

Since the 2023 election, every school division has seen its funding topped up annually, Schmidt said, adding that will continue to be the case in the future under the NDP.

Her office is working with divisions to “make sure they’re putting those resources in the best place,” she said.

Manitoba released class size guidelines in 2024, but there are no penalties if a class surpasses the suggested maximums.

Kindergarten to Grade 3 classrooms are not supposed to have more than 20 students registered in them. The cap for Grades 4-8 is 25.

The guidelines aren’t always respected because school divisions can only do so much with the funding they have, Klausen said.

The union leader noted that teachers in other Canadian jurisdictions have tried to bring classroom size and complexity “into the mix” in contract negotiations.

The margin of error for the newly released teacher survey is plus or minus 1.54 percentage points, or 19 times out of 20.

— With files from Carol Sanders

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca