School resources as important as class
size
The Daily News (Kamloops)
Wed 07 Sep
2005
Page: A7
Section: Letters
Byline: John Sternig
Source: The
Daily News

Susan Duncan's editorial classifying the C.D. Howe Institute report
on class size as "a joke" is reflective on our own little world here in School
District 73 (For Most, Class Size Means Everything, The Daily News, Aug. 30).

The Guillemette report states that reduced class sizes in kindergarten
through Grade 3 does increase performance and that reduced class sizes in math
shows a marginal benefit. However, the older students in other subjects are not
affected and often show a slightly better performance in a larger class size
environment.

The Guillemette position is supported by a report by the Manitoba NDP
government, another province that has made marked gains in education, stating
that class composition is a more important factor that class size.

School District 73 went through the cost-cutting measure in 2002 of reducing
teachers and increasing class sizes. Where did this money go, one asks? It went
to a $2-million pension bonus to retiring teachers, $300,000 annually to a
pension shortfall for teachers, double-digit retroactive wage increase for our
principals, followed by substantial wage increases for our administration. No
money found its way back to increase and update the conditions in local
classrooms.

This past year the province of B.C. extended an open offer to all districts
of $2.1 million. This computer pilot project supplied Grade 9 students with
laptop computers with the province picking up 25 per cent of the cost. This
initiative, introduced by the Fort St. John district, showed a marked
improvement in performance by almost all high school students, with boys
catching up to the girls. Twelve districts, representing about one quarter of
the districts in B.C., took the province up on the offer.

School District 73 ignored this opportunity, and instead boasted of buying
$30 used computers to adhere to the Linux system in high schools. Teachers
comment that our system bogs down, the usable lab computers number in the single
digits and that the software used is often free from the Internet. We are
preparing our local students for universities/ employment where freeware is the
norm.

The joke is little or none of these freeware-dependent jobs/universities
exist.

Wouldn't you think that many teachers would accept two extra students for an
extra $6,000-$10,000 invested in their class annually? The lack of investment
towards classroom assets is reflected in a comment by a student teacher from
another district referring to my son's high school as a "slum school." The
students waited for a punch line, but he was deadly serious.

Students will do better when you balance class size with investment in class
assets to make the class environment more reflective of society's technological
advancements.

John Sternig

Heffley Creek

Edition: Final
Story Type: Letter
Length: 444
words