The Toronto District School Board concedes, however, that it lacks funding to keep classes at 15 students
The number of children in each class has become the subject of discussion across the country as public-health experts and educators argue that more physical distance reduces the spread of coronavirus.Canada’s largest school board says it is exploring ways to keep elementary classes from being too large, but concedes it lacks funding to keep them at 15 students amid growing anxiety among parents and educators about schools reopening this fall.
New Brunswick’s back-to-school plan includes keeping the numbers as close as possible to 15 in kindergarten to Grade 2. Quebec has said each class will contain groups of six students with no physical distancing required among them, but will be separated by one metre from other groups within the same classroom.
Amy Greer, an epidemiologist at the University of Guelph, said that in countries that have kept students in groups of 10 or 15, such as Denmark and Germany, officials have not seen transmission associated with schools reopening. She said class sizes in Ontario, which can reach into the 30s, are “problematic.” The province has class caps of about 20 in the primary grades, but in Grades 4 to 8, the average class size is 24.5.
She said stakeholders in public education need to use the limited time before classes resume to find unused space in schools and hire additional teachers to reduce the numbers in each room. “Smaller class sizes will be educationally beneficial after the period of school closure to allow teachers to asses their students’ learning and needs, and to provide individual support,” Prof. Campbell said.
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