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March 22, 1999
(Education)


Minister announces teacher allocations for 1999/2000 school year

"Government is re-investing $11.8 million into the education system to reduce the loss in the number of teaching positions from the schools of Newfoundland and Labrador, that would have occurred at the end of this school year because of enrolment decline and school closures," said Minister of Education Judy Foote.

This re-investment means that 236 teaching positions, that would otherwise have been lost due to the decline in student enrolment and the closure of some schools at the end of the last school year, will be retained. If government had strictly adhered to the formula, 418 teaching positions would have been eliminated. However, government is putting back 236 teaching positions in order to continue to provide a high quality of education. Ms. Foote said: "Government has taken this step as part of its continuing commitment to reinvest money in education reform."

The minister said that requests by some school boards for an absolute moratorium on teacher reductions is impossible in the face of rapidly declining enrolments in the province. She noted that the province's school population has declined by almost 15,000 students in the last four years and by approximately 4,200 or about four per cent since last year.

The minister said: "This demonstrates government's on-going commitment to the improvement of educational opportunities for our students and our resolve to continue with education reform."

Media contact: Nancy Healey, Communications, (709) 729-0048.

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BACKGROUNDER

STUDENT ENROLMENT

  • The total enrolment in all schools which are operated by school boards is 97,397.

  • This enrolment is reported as of September 30, 1998.

  • Of this number, 9,172 attend small necessarily existent schools.

  • This represents a decline of 4,211 students from the number enroled during last school year.

  • The decline in "regular" schools was 3,714.

  • The decline in small necessarily existent schools was 497.

TEACHERS

  • There are currently 6,188 teachers allocated for the 1998/99 school year. If the department had applied the teacher allocation formulae as has been used for a number of years, the reduction in the number of teachers in the province would have been 418.

  • Government has decided to limit the reduction of teachers to 182. This represents a reinvestment of 236 teachers or about $11.8 million.

  • The total number of teachers being allocated to school boards at this time is 6,007.

  • Last year, 221 teacher units were "added back" to allay the effect of reducing the number of teachers.

SCHOOLS

  • For the 1998/99 school year there are 365 schools in the province.

  • This is a decline of 29 from the number of schools which existed last year.

1999 03 22                                    4:10 p.m.


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