Saskatoon’s growth creates some challenges in the classroom

A recent report from Statistics Canada has shown that Saskatoon grew 2.2 per cent from 2018 to 2019.

A lot of the growth the city has seen in recent years has been a result of immigration.

Patrick Maze, the president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, said while diversity and multiculturalism are always welcomed, it has created some challenges for teachers.

Maze said in the past decade about 6,000 English as an Additional Language (EAL) students have entered the system, while only 21 additional EAL teachers have been added.

“Our resources are not keeping up with the demographics of the population,” Maze said.

“You can be a very good math teacher or a very good science teacher, but if you have a student in front of you who doesn’t speak English, it doesn’t matter how good you are.”

Maze said teachers in those situations have to start from the beginning teaching the basics of English and that presents a challenge because often teachers can have 25 or 35 other students in the classroom who also have learning requirements.

“We’re seeing some classes that have 50 per cent or more students who are EAL and that presents great needs,” said Maze.

He said it’s also not only language barriers that can be challenging, but also cultural barriers and even some mental health issues if a student has come from a country that was in a war zone or if they have lived in a refugee camp.

“It’s not even just not being trained to teach English as an Additional Language, (the teachers) don’t have the training and shouldn’t be expected to offer mental health counselling for students,” said Maze.

Maze said teachers need more supports to deal with those issues, as it is causing anxiety and burnout in some cases.

He admits it is a complex challenge to deal with and there is no one-size-fits-all answer, as every classroom and every student is different.