High school students in Guelph will join students all over Ontario in a province-wide walkout Thursday, April. 4, to protest the recent education cuts proposed by the Ford government.
Students from city high schools will gather outside City Hall at 1:15 p.m. to rally against the changes and speak about how the proposed cuts are affecting them personally and as a community.
Ford’s recent proposed changes include increasing the number of students in classes to include between 28 to 42 students, mandatory e-learning classes for students and changes in the programs for kids with autism in schools.
His recent changes to the education system have caused outrage from parents, teachers and students across the province.
“With the raising of the class numbers, there's not going to be an ideal learning environment to have up to 45 students per class because there's going to be less one on one teacher support for the kids,” said John F. Ross Grade 10 student Kyla Wilkinson.
“There will be less opportunities to receive that support that you may need from the teachers.”
Students like Wilkinson feel a direct threat to education because they're pursuing niche studies like art.
“And those art class that are electives are at risk because if they don't reach the new minimum amount of students per class, those classes are going to be cut. which isn't fair,” said Wilkinson.
Wilkinson feels walkouts like this can bring great changes by allowing people to voice out their disagreement with the policies.
“I hope that with this walkout they can go back and reflect on some of their proposed cuts and maybe change them so they are not negatively impacting students’ education as much and not putting teachers’ jobs at risk,” said Wilkinson.
