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EDMONTON — Alberta’s government has released a new roadmap aimed at reducing classroom complexity and rising student aggression, but the province’s largest union for education support staff says the report offers nothing Albertans did not already know.
The Aggression and Complexity in Schools Action Team was created last summer to study growing challenges in classrooms. Its final report, released Thursday, outlines seven recommendations that include hiring more teachers and educational assistants, expanding early intervention programs and improving coordination between ministries.
Premier Danielle Smith said families and educators have been clear that classrooms are becoming more difficult and that violence and disruption cannot be accepted as normal. She said the recommendations will help shape practical solutions for safer learning environments.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the province has already begun acting on the report by forming a Class Size and Complexity Cabinet Committee and collecting data on class sizes and composition.
Alberta plans to spend three hundred million dollars over the next three years to hire one thousand five hundred educational assistants. After covering those hires, school boards may use remaining funds for additional staff or student supports, including assessments and therapy services. The province has also committed to hiring three thousand teachers.
Division leaders from Edmonton Catholic Schools and the Calgary Board of Education, which co-chaired the action team, said the recommendations reflect long-standing concerns raised by frontline staff and could lead to meaningful improvements.
CUPE Alberta, which represents about twelve thousand education workers, dismissed the report as repetitive and overdue. President Raj Uppal said the central issue is chronic understaffing, not a lack of study.
“There’s nothing new in this ‘new’ roadmap. We all know we need more staff in classrooms, and the UCP needs to make it happen,” he said.
Uppal argued the government’s promised one thousand five hundred assistants is about half of what is required to reach staffing levels last seen in 2019. He said recent strikes by support staff and teachers stemmed from years of what the union calls underfunding.
“They keep promising more staff, and then they keep failing to deliver,” he said.
The cabinet committee is expected to use the action team’s recommendations to guide future funding and policy decisions as the province prepares its response to ongoing concerns about classroom complexity.
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