Students who walked out of class to protest proposed changes to the education system Thursday are tools of teachers’ unions which want to line their pockets, according to Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

The province, Ford said in a surprise visit to North Bay, is actually putting more money into education, while students are being fed “untruths” about funding and class sizes by teacher unions.

“Rather than walking out they should be in the classes” to make sure Ontario students are the best in Canada.

But in subjects such as Grade 6 math, he said, Ontario students are ranked at the bottom of the country.

“I wish teacher unions . . . would focus on alternatives” to the way math is taught in the province, claiming many teachers in the elementary system are themselves unable to pass a Grade 6 math test.

“They are filling the heads (of students) with absolute rubbish,” Ford said. Students “are being fed all these lies.”

He also denied the province is ignoring parents and students on the future of education in the province.

“We are listening loud and clear,” he said. But when “we are at the bottom of the heap for results, I hope teachers’ unions will listen.

“They are using students as a bunch of pawns.”

The province is planning to eliminate almost 3,500 teaching positions over the next four years, a move expected to save $851 million. But Education Minister Lisa Thompson said those cuts will be achieved through attrition as teachers retire or change careers.

An estimated 200,000 students across the province – including secondary students in North Bay and the region – walked out of class Thursday afternoon to protest plans by the province to increase class sizes, teacher job cuts, funding cuts, the requirement for high school students to take four e-learning credits, changes to Indigenous content, changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Plan, scrapping of the francophone initiative, cuts to specialize programs and changes to the Ontario Autism Program.

Nipissing MPP and Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, in a Facebook post Thursday, said he was “deeply concerned” about the walkouts, saying schools “should be a place for learning – not for pushing ideological agendas.”

He said teachers’ unions “are clearly aiding and encouraging this walkout and using our students as bargaining chips for their own personal agenda.

“While the unions use the classroom as a soapbox, and our children as pawns – our government is focusing on the real challenges facing our education system – such as the fact that too many of our students are failing math.”

Students participating in the walkout, though, denied any teacher or union involvement.

“This was completely student organized,” Mikaila Kimball, an organizer of the rally at Chippewa Secondary School, said.

Friday, while not divulging anything from the provincial budget he will present at Queen’s Park April 11, Fedeli said the province is still committed to bringing passenger rail service back to northeastern Ontario.

Fedeli said the promise was one of the planks in the provincial election platform for the Progressive Conservatives in last June’s election.

“We said we would do it within our first mandate,” Fedeli said. “There are still three years left in the mandate.”