Overcrowding In The Classroom

This blog will address how overcrowding of schools, and a lack of teachers are removing from the individual experience that was previously provided by the education system. Overcrowding has become a serious issue, not only in Canada but also throughout the world, but it has seen little effort toward being addressed. Just recently Charlottetown rural attempted to have a meeting regarding the issue, with very little administrators and parents in attendance. Here is the link to the article. 

I’ve personally witnessed a huge increase in classroom size in Red Deer in the last few years. When I had attended middle school, the largest classroom was of about 30 students. Now that my younger sisters are in school, their average classroom size ranged from 30-35 students. I believe this is due to a lack of preparation for the possibility of a growing population in the city. In addition to this, the lack of teachers being hired creates for a large discrepancy between the amount of teachers, and the amount of students. The larger the classroom, the more that the teacher is forced to apply teaching for the masses, as opposed as teaching for the individual student.

This also creates a delay in receiving feedback from the teacher on these worksheets because of the larger classroom size. It removes the essential one on one time that was so beneficial for myself and other students. Not only does it remove from the academic growth, but also the classes are more rambunctious because the teachers may have a harder time keeping the attention of such large classrooms. Not to mention, that in order to keep the class in order, the teacher has to be stricter. This creates animosity between the students and teacher and further creates the division within the classroom.

 In an article by Julia G Thompson she spotlights a possible solution “even if you are not easily intimidated, confronting a large group of students who have been crammed into a classroom designed for a much smaller group can be more than a little discouraging. Unless you immediately assume a strong leadership role, you will be so outnumbered by your students that they will be in charge of the class, not you.” I have experienced this discipline first hand during my early years of middle school, and dreaded attending that teacher’s class.

My sisters have told me of how often they get away with communicating with their peers because the teacher is distracted reprimanding other students across the classroom for disruptiveness. It is a game of cat and mouse in some classrooms where the student to teacher ratio is huge.  This creates an issue because the early years of a student’s academic career are when they need the most guidance, and attention. But instead they are getting worksheets without much significance on their academic growth. There is only so much progress that can be achieved from worksheets.This quote from the article shows that "a study of overcrowded schools in New York City found that students in such schools scored significantly lower on both mathematics and reading exams than did similar students... In addition, when asked, students and teachers in overcrowded schools agreed that overcrowding negatively affected both classroom activities and instructional techniques." It is vital for students to get that feedback from a teacher during a one on one session, at least occasionally. But for teachers in overcrowded classrooms, it is incredibly difficult to have one on one time with 30+ students during a school day. Not only is this detrimental for the students, but some teachers are also becoming overwhelmed.

This allows an already stressful job to become more exhausting because of the increased classroom size. To add to this stress, having students who are attempting to learn but cannot hear the teacher over the other students is a frustrating situation for both students and teacher. More students also means that what can also occur are students being left out of activities, where supplies and equipment is limited. This provides a huge hindrance on the students who are being denied the opportunity to enrich their education with these materials. Alberta is taking steps forward by opening up the budget for education, and thus allowing for more classrooms to be built. This, coupled with more teachers being hired, will result in better student to teacher ratio’s, which will allow for a better learning environment.

In addition to these steps, I believe administrators should look farther into the future when preparing for school growth in order to prevent the overcrowding. Teachers should also be provided with a teaching aide when they are faced with a classroom of 30 or more students, in order to lessen the load on the educators. Another solution to help teachers during times of large classrooms is to put in place a seating arrangement where it puts the students in an order that is more likely to allow for a quieter learning environment. In order for education to move forward, I believe we should attempt to hire more teachers and create smaller classrooms, as opposed to putting more students under the care of one teacher in order to save money.

Here is a short video of a mothers experience with over crowding in her daughters class, and how she is not impressed with their learning environment.