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Teachers reveal urban/rural divide

What sets rural and urban Saskatchewan apart tends to be a re-occurring theme in this province. There are simply differences between urban and rural needs and concerns. We need to recognize this.
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What sets rural and urban Saskatchewan apart tends to be a re-occurring theme in this province.

There are simply differences between urban and rural needs and concerns. We need to recognize this.

And one of the bigger ones — one not much talked about — is the different challenges urban and rural teachers face.

Of late, what you have most likely been hearing is a lot of squabbling between the Saskatchewan Party government and NDP Opposition over dueling survey results on the needs in the education system.

The day students returned to school, NDP education critic Carla Beck demanded Education Minister Gord Wyant release the results of the government’s education survey.

At that particularly point, the government had only provided a summary of its own survey that the NDP complained “silenced the voices teachers”. By contrast, the NDP’s own survey conducted last June revealed massive teacher frustration with the current government.

“If the responses to the government’s survey look anything like the responses we received to our survey, there’s no wonder the Education Minister wants to bury them,” Beck said in a prepared statement that further noted “40 per cent of teachers have considered leaving the profession.”

There is no doubt that Saskatchewan education faces some very big challenges — especially in urban schools facing added pressures of overcrowded classrooms, students who have recently come to Canada and do not yet speak English and general pressures of urban life.

For example, the NDP survey suggested some 70 per cent of education assistants surveyed suggested they have witnessed or experienced violence every week or every day — a problem likely more prevalent in urban schools.

Interestingly, the government survey seemed to have a different emphasis, claiming that students wanted quality teachers and a quiet living environment, but were relatively unconcerned about classroom size.

The disparity can largely be found in the old adage that you get the results you want based on the kind of questions you asked.

While the government survey boasts of 9,000 participants neither it nor the Opposition survey can claim any scientific accuracy associated with polling. Both sought out people willing to share their views.

In the case of the NDP people, its survey, unsurprisingly, seemed largely frustrated with the education system.

In the case of the Sask. Party government, it was people who might have had some concerns but perhaps had less of an axe to grind. Certainly, there was no attempt on the government’s part to drill down into incompatible notions like why students would say they aren’t concerned about class size when those very same students in large classrooms come home each night complaining about teachers not providing enough help or classrooms being too noisy and distracting.

And with the NDP’s emphasis on finding disgruntled teachers, its survey also seemed missed the mark.

However, the real missed opportunity here might have been the unwillingness to explore the legitimate differences faced by urban and rural teachers.

For example, classroom size isn’t generally an issue in rural schools where declining populations have afforded students more one-on-one time with teachers for decades.

Of course, the NDP and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation don’t want to talk about this because it is a divisive issue within teachers’ ranks. As a result, the STF would prefer to focus on more agreeable issues like wages or preparation time.

And the Sask. Party government certainly doesn’t want to talk much about because it leads to conversations about disparity and perhaps the amount of the education budget allocated to both rural urban schools.

These may be uncomfortable conversations, but it would still be helpful to have them. Or at least, they would be more productive than the recent duelling surveys.

We need to talk about rural/urban differences if we hope to address them.

Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.