Rick Cuming is the president of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association. (Photo submitted by NBTA)
The President of the New Brunswick Teachers Association says the Higgs government can’t make any cuts to education funding, in fact, more resources are needed.
Rick Cuming says the shortage of Educational Assistants is becoming a crisis in some areas of the province, especially the Moncton region.
He says the government needs to address the issue.
“They, (Educational Assistants) play such an important role, it is important to realize that is just one of the supports that we do need, we do need them addressed we do need more of them there. Each of the reports that they have asked for has called for an increase in these numbers,” stated Cuming.
The president is also letting the Higgs government know that siphoning teachers out of the classroom to fill other needs is the wrong approach.
“If you remove one teacher from a high school classroom, you are removing eight courses, any type of siphoning out of a school is really causing an impact on the school itself for the ability to provide enrichment for students or remediation for other students,” Cuming said.
He adds, “The needs for all of these services have far surpassed even the needs from 15 years ago and we have fewer students now than we had 15 years ago, so if we’re going to be making funding decisions based on simplistic metrics like declining enrolment or per people funding well that is just short-sighted and foolish.”
