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Alberta’s teachers are on strike and as they hit the picket line, the province’s parents and students are set to see disruptions.
About 51,000 teachers have walked off the job, leaving more than 730,000 students in the province’s public, Catholic and francophone schools impacted.
“Ideally, we would want a short strike so that we could get back to work, but we also know that we need to stand up for public education,” Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said on Monday.
But classes aren’t the only thing facing disruptions.
Ahead of the strike, most school boards in the province sent notices to families informing them that field trips, extracurricular activities and sports would also be cancelled.
In most cases, those who paid fees for such trips and activities will see those costs adjusted.
That includes yellow school buses. Edmonton Catholic Schools and Edmonton Public Schools say the money will be credited to a family’s account.
Those trying to contact schools with questions could face some difficulty, school boards note. Some, like Edmonton Public Schools, are making general phone lines and email inboxes available, while others, like Fort McMurray Public Schools, say teachers and school administrators will not be accessible.
Each school board has put out notices advising families about the various cancellations and adjustments that have been made.
Some school boards and the provincial government have made resources available to try and assist students so they don’t fall behind.
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The Alberta government announced last week that it would provide a free education toolkit parents can use to help support learning in English, French or French immersion while schools are closed.
The province notes that if families choose to enrol their child or children in a home education program during the strike, they will be deregistered from their school and when they end home education, they’re not guaranteed to return to the same school they attended.
The Calgary Board of Education says it will also have D2L and Google Classroom available throughout the labour action, but teachers won’t be responding to or assessing student work during the strike.
Grade 10 to 12 students will also be able to keep earning credits during a strike by attending distance learning, with the province temporarily lifting its 10-credit-per-year limit.
Alberta Schools Councils’ Association president Ken Glazebrook, who has a daughter in Grade 7, cautioned it may not be enough.
“It’s not quite to the standard of being in class, and the curriculum that’s there probably could use some work,” he said. “(But) how do they get the feedback and how do they know? A lot of the parents aren’t equipped to be that type of person…. So keeping that consistency for those kids and making sure that they don’t fall behind, like happened in COVID, that’s a big concern for parents.”
Parents will also receive $150 a week per student 12 and under to assist in finding child care and tutoring.
Some parents told Global News they’ve had to scramble for child care with their kids now out of school.
“My sister’s working and I have the day off, so I get to watch (my niece), and she should be in school, she’s in Grade 1 and my little one started kindergarten this year and it’s a big developmental milestone and to have a teachers’ strike right now is not super fun,” said Alicia Knight, who was taking her niece to the zoo. “It’s a scramble for child care. Mine’s in daycare, but (my niece) doesn’t have daycare because she’s in school normally the full day, so it’s disappointing.”
The provincial government noted that out-of-school care programs can extend their hours to provide care during a teachers’ strike, and it has increased October funding rates for child care for eligible children in grades 1 to 6 who are attending such care.
Teachers rejected the government’s latest offer in a vote last month, which included a 12 per cent pay raise over four years, a government promise to hire 3,000 more teachers to address class sizes and money to cover the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Despite the rejection, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the province is ready to return to the bargaining table.
“We don’t think we’re that far apart. We think our wage offer is very fair,” she said.
Schilling did not say if he agreed with Smith’s statement, but stressed the need for “concrete changes.”
“This lack of funding is one of the key factors that has led to this crisis in education, you cannot keep underfunding the system year after year after year and think that people are going to be OK with it after a while,” he said.
— with files from Global News’ Heather Yourex-West and The Canadian Press
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