Thousands of educators from across the province - including Niagara - gathered at Queen’s Park Saturday to protest the planned elimination of more than 3,000 teaching jobs over the next four years and call on the province to boost funding for education.
The province has indicated that it intends to cut 3,475 full-time equivalent teaching positions through attrition, starting with 1,558 positions this fall.
The elimination of the positions is expected to result in a savings of $851 million over four year.
The rally was jointly organized by five unions that represent public school teachers in the province.
It came just days after thousands of students at more than 600 schools across the province participated in walkouts to protest changes to the education system.
In a message posted to Twitter on Saturday morning, Premier Doug Ford did not directly address the rally but he did say that his government will “not be distracted from making the necessary reforms to create a sustainable, world-class education system that protects what matters most for students.”