The Department of Education is also announcing a new $7 million fund to hire 200 new educational assistants.
Our government is aware of the effects of rising costs on our schools
Education Minister Dustin Duncan said Thursday. We are committed to ensuring that every student and teacher in Saskatchewan has the support they need to succeed in the classroom.
Now that school board budgets have been submitted, we have weighed the impact of fuel and insurance costs on their operations and are in a position to provide additional assistance to school divisions.
he adds.
So 27 school divisions will benefit from this additional funding.
Regina Public Schools Division and Saskatoon Public Schools Division will each receive more than $1.5 million. The Conseil des écoles fransaskoises (CEF) will receive $593,300.
With this additional funding, the government hopes that school divisions can prioritize classroom resource costs over inflation-related costs.
Minister Dustin Duncan explains that the money is intended to ease the financial burden associated with transportation and insurance.
We know better where we are as a province and we certainly have a good idea of where school divisions are, because they have submitted their budgets. We weren’t in this position a month ago
he explains.
This will not address all of the concerns raised by school divisions, but they will have to make decisions with the funds available to them.
In the 2022-23 budget, the Ministry of Education invested $2.88 billion in this sector. An increase of 1.5% over the previous school year. This additional funding represents an additional 1% increase for the fiscal year.
Long-awaited funds
In recent months, several school divisions in the province have announced that they will have to cut positions for lack of money. Four of them had notably planned to eliminate a combined total of 100 positions in their budgets for 2022-2023.
Some school divisions have also added a lunch hour supervision fee.
Last June, the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan asked the provincial government to increase funding for school divisions by $50 million.
When the provincial budget was tabled, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation denounced the lack of funding in this sector.
The federation says those who suffer the most from the lack of these resources are the students, particularly those who need support staff.
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