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It amounts to less than one teacher per school.

Less than 3% of the total teaching population over the course of four years.

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That is the reality of the Ford government’s so-called “deep cuts” which is how the NDP describes the reductions in teachers over the next four years.

Yes, thanks to an increase in average class size for high school students from 22 to 28 and from 23.5 to 24.5 students per class in Grades 4 through 8, there will be the need for fewer teachers.

According to government documents, there will be 3,475 fewer teaching positions over the next four years.

But the government promises that no teachers will face “involuntary layoffs” due to these changes to class sizes or the push for high school students to eventually take one online course per year in order to graduate.

Instead, the government will reduce the number of teaching positions by not replacing those that quit or retire.

For the 3,475 teaching positions that are expected to be reduced over the next four years, that amounts to about 2.7% of of the current teaching population.