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VANCOUVER Teachers have their pick of jobs in British Columbia, but the head of their union warns that some students are going without their specially trained educators who are covering substitute positions that districts haven’t been able to fill.

B.C. Teachers Federation president Glen Hansman said students requiring one-on-one attention or support in small groups from special education teachers are shouldering the burden of staffing issues.

“The bulk of the time, it’s the child who’s supposed to be receiving special education services who’s unfairly having their program bumped that day,” Hansman said.

There was already a lack of substitutes before the shortage of teachers became a crisis in the current school year, he said, adding some school districts don’t have enough special education teachers either.

“The students with special needs are legally entitled to those accommodations and we’ve been putting a big spotlight, as have parents, on the fact that the system has been underserving those students for many, many years.”

The Education Ministry couldn’t say how many teachers are still needed across the province after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling last year restored smaller class sizes and composition of classes after the previous Liberal government stripped those bargaining rights from teachers’ contracts in 2002.

“Schools and districts are very near the end of hiring over 3,500 full-time teachers, the largest hiring campaign of teachers in B.C.’s history,” the ministry said in a statement.

A task force of education experts appointed to assess workforce challenges is expected to provide recommendations by the end of the month, it said.

Hansman said the starting salary for teachers in British Columbia is the second-lowest in Canada, after Quebec, so that’s deterring people from moving to the province, where the high cost of housing is an issue.