Concerns are growing among New Brunswick teachers regarding cuts in the classrooms for those students who need additional support.
There are reportedly fewer Educational Assistants in the classrooms in Anglophone East School District this year than previously.
President of the New Brunswick Teachers Association Connie Keating says she has heard concerns from a couple of districts in the province regarding this issue.
She feels there is an amplified need for people in these roles right now, “This absolutely does impact student service teams and classroom teachers, and the students themselves who require additional support. We’ve had a substantial number of newcomers in our schools. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there are about 6000 newcomer students in our schools, and so, they require services. They struggle with language, some of them with trauma or a number of things, and they need services in order to thrive. So, we really cannot afford to have cuts in the system at this point.”
She adds conversations are ongoing with the province, “Certainly as concerns come in, there would be regular communications that happen between myself, my co-president and our Minister of Education. Those things are ongoing. We really need to have, some really robust conversations in order to find some solutions. These are issues that need to be dealt with as soon as possible.”
