DURHAM REGION, ON – A recent survey of Ontario education workers including Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, Child and Youth workers, custodians, maintenance and trades workers, and school secretaries represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) shows that a severe crisis in underfunding has led to extreme understaffing, students’ needs going unmet, and increased violence in the Durham District School Board and Durham Catholic District School Board.
The CUPE-OSBCU survey included over 12,000 respondents from across Ontario. The survey points to a crisis of understaffing in all classifications, causing insufficient supports for students and staff in schools and the Hamilton community. School offices are overburdened by increasing demands, school cleaning suffers, and repairs are delayed or go undone.
Read the full CUPE-OSBCU Services Survey report for the Durham Region.
CUPE Local 218 represent over 3000 members, including Educational Assistants, Child and Youth Workers, secretarial staff, IT, custodial, maintenance and trades workers, and other educational workers.
This school year alone, Durham District School Board has faced a minimum of a $88 million cut to real per-pupil funding, Durham Catholic District School Board faced a real per-pupil cut of over $25 million.
Many education workers at these school boards say they frequently face violent incidents at their workplace, with over 57 percent of Educational Assistants and Child and Youth Workers experiencing a violent incident every day.
This severe underfunding leaves students and workers at risk because there are too few staff in schools. It also means students have their learning environments disrupted on a regular basis, creating an environment that is far from conducive to having the highest quality of education.
CUPE education workers across the province are calling on the Ford government to immediately increase school board funding, adequately staff school boards so that education workers can do their jobs with dignity and respect and address the crisis of violence across Ontario school boards.
The OSBCU represents more than 57,000 education workers in Ontario.
Quotes:
Joe Tigani, President of OSBCU: It is abundantly clear that the education system in Ontario is at a breaking point. For years, the Conservative government has continued to cut billions of dollars in funding to the education sector, causing extreme understaffing, increased violence against staff and students, and our students’ needs being neglected. There is no question that the Ford government has abandoned the education sector. The Ontario government must increase its investment in students and education workers and address this situation immediately. Students deserve better, parents deserve better, and our education workers deserve better.
Carrie Boisvert, President of CUPE 218: As the President of over 3500 education workers serving both the Durham Catholic District School Board and the Durham District School Board in Durham Region, the impact of chronic underfunding and understaffing on the education sector is devastating. We have consistently raised concerns about the severe staffing shortages in all job classifications, including school secretaries, custodians and Educational Assistants. Our secretaries are the backbone of school offices and are shouldering the brunt of administrative tasks. Often our secretaries are working beyond their scheduled hours to keep our schools running. Custodians are incredibly short staffed across both school boards, compromising the health and safety of staff and students, and undermining the overall learning environment. Educational Assistants are facing extreme overwork and burnout. EAs are crucial to providing essential supports to students, but the lack of replacements has led to severe shortages, leaving students and staff struggling to cope. The bundling of students to support building needs is exacerbating the issue, leading to increased student violence and a rise in behavioral incidents. This is a clear indication that the current system is failing our students.
The province, and school boards are doing a disservice to students and their families by failing to address these critical issues. It’s unacceptable that our education system is being compromised by systemic underfunding and understaffing. We urge the government to take immediate action to address these pressing concerns and ensure that our schools are equipped to provide the support our students need to succeed.
Numbers at a Glance:
- The Durham District School Board has faced a minimum of a $88 million cut to real per-pupil funding in 2024-25. The Durham Catholic District School Board has faced a minimum of a $25 million cut to real per-pupil funding in 2024-25.
- 55 percent of members say they do unpaid work for the school board, effectively subsidizing schools to make up for the lack of funding. Extrapolating the amount of unpaid work reported to the entire membership of these locals, an equivalent of 69.1 Full-Time Equivalent jobs worth of unpaid work are done by CUPE members.
- 90 percent of respondents say they feel stress due to an excessive workload.
- 82 percent of all respondents say they experience violent or disruptive incidents in their work area. 95 percent Educational Assistants or Child and Youth Workers experience violent or disruptive incidents in their workplace, 57 percent say it happens every day.
- 72 percent of Educational Assistants and Child and Youth Workers have their work areas (i.e. classrooms) evacuated at least sometimes, 10 percent say it happens every day.
- 84 percent of respondents say there are not enough people employed in their own job classification at the school board or in their school. 85 percent of respondents said that services for students, staff, or the school community would be improved with more staff in their classification.
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For more information, contact:
Shannon Carranco
CUPE Communications
[email protected]
514-703-8358
lg/cope491
