KAWARTHA LAKES-17 year old Fenelon Falls Secondary School student Makayla Brennan is getting a real life education in civics. She and her friend Charlotte Neuman are organizing a protest at the school as part of the “Students Say No” Walk Out on April 4th.
Brennan says she’s upset with some Ford governments proposed changes to education. “The Ford Government has made it seem as though dollar beers and other things are more important than education and youth in Ontario and that’s problematic given that youth are the future.” Brennan told kawartha 411.
She’s also concerned about the proposed cuts to Special Education programs.
“The One that really gets me is the cuts to the PALS program because there’s already not enough staff for that and not enough funding for that as it stands now and the cutting for that is like taking away a whole community in Ontario that needs the most support.” PALS stands for Practical and Acedemic Life Skills Program.
On March 15th the Ontario government announced plans to increase class sizes for high school and some elementary grades as part of sweeping changes to the province’s education system that will also include, e-learning, reduced funding for some programs and a “back-to-basics” approach to math.
“Increased class sizes, fewer teachers and madatory e-learning is really ridiculous to me because class sizes are already too big and students aren’t receiving the help and resources they need already so taking that away is going to decrease the number of succesful students in the future.” say Brennan.
The ” Walk Out” will be held on April 4th at 1:15. The students say they are too young to vote so they hope some parents and other adults will take an interest and show up to the protest as well.
