Ontario’s Education Minister is shedding some light on her plans for class sizes.
Lisa Thompson told reporters today class sizes for Kindergarten to Grade 3 will remain the same, but other grades will see their student numbers increase.
“What we are looking at in high school is an average increase of six students up to 28 students. In elementary, what we are looking at from grade 4 to 8 just one more student per class.”
The Education Minister hopes the changes in class size will help reduce pressure on school boards to put students in portables and split classes.
Other initiatives announced by the Education Minister Friday morning include a ‘back-to-basics’ math curriculum.
When it comes to sex education, Thompson says parents told them some concepts were being taught too early and they are going to raise the age for those unspecified topics.
“But, I assure you here today that we are going to keep them all in the curriculum and we are going to respect Mom and Dad by providing an opt-out, so parents can make the decision on their kids’ health education.”
The new health and physical education curriculum will also focus on respect and safety.
Meanwhile, Thompson told reporters she intends to take her ministry out of the publishing business when it comes to school curriculums.
She told them updating the curriculum costs the government hundreds of thousands of dollars in printing and distributing documents.
“This fall we will start to phase in a new digital curriculum platform available anywhere, anytime and on any device. This platform will provide teachers, students and parents full curriculum access and up to the minute changes.”
The provincial government also intends to ban personal cell phones from classrooms this fall.