VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - High school technology teachers are sounding out about too many kids using dangerous tools in shop class.
Susan Lambert with the
BC Teachers Federation says it boils down to class size and composition.
"There should be a limit of 20 to 24 students in any shop or lab class. What we see now is 30 and more and embedded within those 30 are children with severe learning challenges, children with no English skills."
While she knows woodshop, metal shop and automotive classes have been around for ages, she says 30 kids per teacher can be dangerous.
"Classes where there are power tools involved and the risk to student safety is high. You have to have a high level of teacher attention to every student in those kinds of situations."
Teachers have come out with a list of guidelines for students, similar to
WorkSafe BC regulations already in place for teachers and will be launched at an event Friday in Kamloops.
Lambert says the timing of the launch has nothing to do with ongoing collective bargaining. She says the idea has been two years in the making and its timing is entirely coincidental.