Thousands of teaching jobs are on the chopping block in light of big cuts expected from the Ontario government over the next four years.
The message comes on the heels of Thursday’s province-wide student walkouts protesting the Ford government’s changes to education.
Those students were protesting changes that include an increase to class size limits, an overhaul to the province’s autism program and other general funding caps.
Now, a memo reportedly lays out a plan to cut teaching positions.
The Progressive Conversative government is set to phase out a total of 3,475 full-time-equivalent teaching jobs. The cut is expected to save the province an estimated $851 million.
“Not a single teacher will experience involuntary job loss,” the government says.
Beginning in the fall, more than 1,500 positions are expected to be phased out through attrition and voluntary packages. There are currently about 115,000 full-time teachers in the province.
The local Catholic teachers’ union says the office has been busy answering questions from teachers who are concerned about what these changes might mean for them.
The Waterloo Region District School Board says it has not received anything official from the government and thus cannot comment.
