Historic teachers’ strike in Alberta has begun

Instead of walking into their classrooms on Monday, some 51,000 Alberta teachers walked off the job, triggering the province’s first teachers’ strike in its history.

It comes after more than a year of failed contract talks between the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and the provincial government — including two rejected offers — with higher wages and increased staffing among the main sticking points.

But class (sort of) remains in session for the more than 730,000 students who’ve been affected by the job action, with the province posting an online learning toolkit of lessons, as well as a stipend of $30 a day to help families whose children are now at home. Teachers, however, will not be monitoring or assessing work during this time, so who’s to say what degree of learning will realistically take place.

Host Richard Southern speaks to Sean Amato, Alberta political reporter for CityNews, to discuss what a potentially weeks-long education strike could mean for the province’s public school system, and the reaction from hundreds of thousands of families who will now have to play the role of ‘educator’ at home or pay someone else to do it instead. 

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