The Minister of Education for Manitoba has been working with school divisions across the province to help meet the requirements of 20K-3 initiative or also known as Smaller Classes Initiative.

"We are having a few issues with a few school divisions finding enough class space, but we are certainly working with them to help them do what they can to accommodate that," said Ian Wishart, who is also the MLA for Portage La Prairie.

According to Wishart, he has been touring around meeting with the different divisions in Manitoba to hear their concerns and work with them as to how to reach the requirements.

"With many of them (the divisions) it's a matter of having a few kids over the twenty target and how can we work as to finding them enough space to make that work," said Wishart. "Of course we don't want anyone pushed out of the school. There's been quite a few new teachers put into the system because of this initiative. Over 380 teachers with approximately fifty more this year and that's across the whole province of course."

One of the ways divisions have been working toward reaching the desired twenty students per classroom is by putting up a number of portables on the school grounds and Wishart doesn't feel it's too much connected to the initiative. Wishart noted they are a little behind in building schools in Manitoba as it has been tough to keep up with the demand over the last number of years. He added, divisions are getting more use out of portables, which does mean that the population is growing, but he is continuing to work hard to build schools in the right place in a timely fashion.

He stated last year roughly eighty-five percent of the Divisions were able to meet the recommended twenty students per class, and is working together with the divisions to bring that percent even higher as the 2017 goal approaches.

"We will very shortly know, based on enrollments, and the resulting ability to handle that, to see how close we are going to come this year," said Wishart. "The target to get there as quickly as we can."

Wishart noted they have been working and doing as much as they can to help each division meet the requirement of the Smaller Classes Initiative, but are giving some of the school divisions some flexibility around those numbers.