Teachers and education workers throughout Ontario including locally were off the job on Friday as there was a province wide strike.

All four major teachers union had members taking part outside MPP Vic Fedeli’s office including English and French public and Catholic elementary and secondary teachers.

Rob Hammond is the local president of the Near North Teachers local of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.

He disagrees with MPP Vic Fedeli who put out a statement on Friday saying the government has made concessions.

“There is no movement and no concessions have been made by the government especially on class sizes, special ed funding and for our most vulnerable students. That’s why we’re on strike,” Hammond says.

In a release, MPP Vic Fedeli says the focus of the government is to keep kids in the classroom.

He says priority number one is getting a deal done .

“That’s what we want to do. We listened to parents and students and we have been reasonable and made significant moves at the table,” he says.

He says the government has reduced proposed secondary class size from 28 to 25, reduced proposed mandatory online learning credits from 4 to 2 and he says the government is committed to maintaining the existing Full Day Kindergarten model.

(photo by station staff)

 

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