Caroline Zentner
lethbridge herald
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A cap on teacher hours is one of the items under discussion as the province, school boards and teachers negotiate a new framework agreement to replace the current collective agreement set to expire at the end of August.
School boards have been asking for more stable funding but to accomplish that Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk needs to know how much it will cost. Most of the expense in the education budget is in teacher salaries and benefits.
With the provincial budget expected around February 9, Lukaszuk is feeling pressure to firm up costs when he begins talking to the Treasury Board about the education budget today.
"It has been asked of me and of the Premier (Alison Redford) from all quarters in the province to provide sustainable and predictable funding," he said in a telephone interview. "In order for that to happen I need to know what the fixed cost of education will be and 80 per cent of every dollar we spend on education is salaries and benefits."
Lukaszuk also told all parties to the negotiations that he wouldn't erode the quality of education, including the time a teacher "interfaces" with a child. Instructional time isn't under discussion in the negotiations but assignable time is.
"At the end of the day we have to make sure kids come out winners," he said.
Lukaszuk has hired two lawyers to see if an agreement can be reached in a timely fashion.
"My lawyers have one simple instruction, get the best deal possible for that student in the desk," he said. "Am I frustrated with the timelines? I'm under a bit of a gun when it comes to timelines. . ."
Lukaszuk said his deadline is "within days" and he'd certainly welcome another five-year deal.
"At the end of the day I want to make sure all parties walk away from the table either equally happy or equally unhappy, that really doesn't matter as long as the student will find herself receiving the high standard of education that we're accustomed to and her ability to learn is not in any way compromised by this new deal," he said.
Meanwhile, teachers are concerned about their expanding workload outside of instructional time.
"Teachers are growing more and more concerned about the work that's being required of them outside of the classroom. So it's important for teachers to have protection from the growing amount of bureaucratic and paper-pushing work that school boards are asking of them," said Jonathan Teghtmeyer, spokesman for the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA).
A recent study by the ATA indicates teachers work, on average, 56 hours a week during the school year. The ATA asked Calgary teachers to track and diarize the time they were spending on work-related activities. On average, those who participated in the study spent 19 hours a week teaching, another 25 hours marking and planning lessons and 10 hours supervising, doing paper work and in professional development.
"This is quite consistent with other research being done on the topic from around North America. The data consistently shows 50 to 55 hours a week at least," he said.
Teghtmeyer said he didn't know the exact terms under negotiation between Alberta Education, the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) and the ATA.
"The government is interested in stability, cost certainty and labour peace and we're interested in those things as well," he said. "Teachers definitely want to be part of the solution."
A spokesman from the ASBA said it would be premature to comment since negotiations are ongoing.