Education Minister Ramona Jennex said the province will examine teacher attrition as one of the ways to cut education costs.
Jennex told reporters Thursday the government anticipates 1,000 teachers will retire over the next three years. She also said the province will have 7,000 fewer students.
“It is a challenge, but during that challenge it provides us on opportunity to use the attrition along with our declining enrolment to make a better balance,” she said.
Jennex said she’ll be calling a meeting with school board superintendants in the coming days. She hopes the meeting can take place as early as next week.
The province’s eight school boards have been asked to undertake a “planning exercise” of presenting different scenarios of how their operations would be affected by a 22 per cent funding cut over three years.
Jennex said she has received “positive,” “very good” ideas and scenarios from school boards as to how cut spending.
