While the Kamloops-Thompson School Board is relatively happy with class sizes across the district, the local Teachers Association has a different message.

First Vice-President of the Kamloops-Thompson Teachers Association, Darcy Martin, says the composition is just as important as the numbers. She says it used to be a maximum of three [Special Needs Students] per classroom, but that language was redefined by the district.

“It means now that, while there will be a maximum of three, what we call low incidence individual education plan students in the class, teachers often have more than three [incidence education plan kids] in their class.”

Martin says it can be difficult for teachers to manage and they often feel like they’re stretched thin.

“It’s not just about bums in seats, I think that’s what teachers are unhappy about,” she added. “They would say that bums in seats is a simple measure or not a true measure of class size.”

She stresses that it’s about a lot more than sheer numbers and composition matters.

“That’s one of our concerns with the prevalence model that the ministry is trying to push,” noted Martin. “We want to see the students who are actually in our classrooms, we want to see their needs met, we want to see that we know who they are, that the funding is targeted to them and we don’t want to just see block funding that’s just sort of applied generally and the students who really need the supports don’t necessarily get it.”

The average class size was presented to the board at this week’s meeting. The numbers are as follows:
• Kindergarten – 18.3 students per class
• Grades 1-3 – 19.9 students per class
• Grades 4-7 – 23.7 students per class
• Grades 8-12 – 23.1 students per class