With school back in session, parents and teachers decry classrooms 'bursting at the seams'

With a new school year now underway, the debate over the safety of large class sizes has returned, with some parents and teachers across Canada decrying classrooms with 30 to 40 students amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In planning for the fall, Melanie Aumont said she'd already felt anxious about enrolling her two sons — one in junior kindergarten and the other in Grade 3 — for in-person learning in Ottawa.

"Then to learn that that environment is basically bursting at the seams … it's not acceptable," said Aumont. "It's very scary for me.… All we want to do as parents is protect our kids."

In Nova Scotia, "everybody's watching back to school closely to see what happens with epidemiology," said Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, since students under 12 aren't yet approved to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

Even before the pandemic, the province was grappling with large class sizes, he said; it wasn't uncommon to see about 40 students taking certain compulsory high school courses, for instance, or elementary schools in high-growth neighbourhoods having classrooms with six to seven students above established guidelines. 

It usually takes a month or so before "formal steps are taken" to bring large classes into compliance, said Wozney.

But large classes are "a double-whammy concern" amid COVID-19, said Wozney, piled on top of worries about the one-on-one attention students might be missing from their teachers.