Manitoba school divisions have been given class size targets of 20 for kindergarten-to-Grade 3 and 25 for older elementary cohorts.
The department of education has asked public school leaders to submit data about teacher-to-student ratios and begin posting it this semester.
School leaders have until Nov. 30 to upload the first round of class sizes and ratios for the public.
The new accountability measure is part of a provincial initiative to lower class sizes. It stops short of formal caps.
“We are confident that this initiative will lead to enhanced in-class interactions between students and educators,” Mona Pandey, assistant deputy minister of system performance and accountability, wrote in a memo to superintendents on Sept. 23.
Schools with average class sizes that surpass 20 for K-3 and 25 for grades 4 to 8 are required to report details about additional support that’s provided to students, Pandey said.
Support can include, but is not limited to, the hiring of educational assistants or rotational teachers, she noted.
The province allocated $3 million to hire more elementary teachers to lower ratios in 2024-25.
Winnipeg, Pembina Trails and Hanover were the recipients of the extra funding, receiving $1.5 million, $1 million and $500,000, respectively.
A provincial spokesperson said those three boards have some of the largest K-3 class sizes in the province.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., Maggie was an intern at the Free Press twice while earning her degree at Ryerson’s School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before joining the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.