Unlikely student teachers required for DSBN: union
ETFO Niagara estimates there are nearly 700 supply teachers available
With as many as 700 qualified teachers on a list to choose from, there shouldn’t be a need for District School Board of Niagara to call in education students to meet the demands.
The provincial government announced this week temporary certification could be issued to senior education students who are expected to graduate this year, to fill vacancies at schools with high levels of absenteeism.
But Mark Carter, president of the Niagara branch of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, representing occasional teachers in the region, said DSBN currently has a pool of close to 700 qualified educators to call on from its list supply of supply teachers, making it unlikely student teachers are required.
“At DSBN, I haven’t heard that it’s something they plan on utilizing,” he said.
“There really is no shortage. Teacher shortages are sort a political football that school boards and the government throw around. And there are a lot of things that can affect it,” he added.
For instance, Carter said there had been little or no training for supply teachers on conducting classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, when a supply position opens up and you get a call at 8 a.m. to take an online learning position and you’ve had no training, you have no idea even how to get into it or what to do, are you going to take it? No,” Carter said. “Does that mean there’s a shortage of teachers? No. It means there’s a structural problem.”
He said it also might not be in the best interest of the education students who would be called in to fill vacancies.
“Taking time from teachers college to teach for a day or two or whatever it might end up being, you might end up having to do another term because you’re missing school,” Carter said. “From what I’ve read about it I don’t think it would be beneficial for a student teacher to take a position like that.”
Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff, who serves as parliamentary assistant to Education Minister Stephen Lecce, said plans for temporary certification of student teachers were designed to address a high level of absenteeism due to the pandemic, while hundreds of additional teachers are being recruited across the province.
“We are going to take every action we can to ensure that there are teachers in the front of classrooms,” he said.
Carter said the union cautiously welcomed news that Niagara schools will be reopening to in-class lessons on Monday.
Lacking the necessary training to conduct online learning, he said a lot of the union members “felt that they couldn’t work at all.”
“But on the other hand, in terms of the safety of going into schools, I don’t know that anybody really feels that there are particularly sufficient measures being taken.”