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British Columbia’s education system will receive a $150-million funding boost after the province reached a deal with teachers to restore contract language that called for smaller class sizes.

Education Minister Mike Bernier said the new classroom enhancement fund is in addition to the $180 million announced in this year’s budget, bringing the total to $330 million.

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The $180 million includes$80 million from the Education Fund and $100 million that was previously announced in the interim deal with the teachers.

The new funding will mean the hiring of about 1,500 new teachers, adding to the approximately 1,000 already announced in the budget, for a total of 2,600 new positions.

“Every single district in the province, every single one, is going to be better off,” Bernier said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.

Bernier would not say how much each district would get under the deal, but did say the Vancouver school board could get as much as $50 to $60 million of the total $330 million. Given that Vancouver has about nine per cent of the province’s students, that is a significant chunk of the total money, but Vancouver has strong class size, class composition and specialist teacher language.