Quick rise in teacher hires creating gaps in system

It’s hard to attract (teachers) to come west of the Rockies when starting salaries are dramatically lower than other parts of Canada.

B.C. schools are still feeling the effects from the hiring of nearly 3,500 teachers.

The hiring blitz followed a 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision that restored clauses on class sizes to B.C. teachers’ contracts.

But limits to class-size have also led to shortages of staff in some areas. Schools have had to call on uncertified personnel, while others have lost teachers to other schools.

“In the general teachers supply, we’re still seeing massive problems with day-to-day shortages of teachers on-call,” says Glen Hansman, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation.

Many who did substitute work have been hired on contract, leaving schools scrambling to fill temporary vacancies.

“Usually what happens is that the Special Ed or ESL or teacher-librarian will be temporarily assigned to replace a classroom teacher who is absent,” says Hansman. “That typically means that kids with special needs or other students who are supposed to have specialized classes, have their dayto-day programming cancelled. That’s a big problem.”

In February, Education Minister Rob Fleming announced the province would increase, by 100, spaces in teacher education programs over the next two years, and by 37 spaces in programs in French.

The announcement followed a December 2017 report from the Minister’s Task Force on Immediate Recruitment and Retention Challenges. Hansman followed up in April with a letter encouraging the minister to adopt more of the report’s recommendations.

“We’re pleased that minister Fleming did make some announcements back in February about increasing teacher education program spots,” says Hansman. “But there are still a few more steps we feel that we need to be taken.”

One problem B.C. faces is starting salaries for teachers.

“It’s great that Vancouver and other school districts are going to Toronto and elsewhere to get prospective students fresh out of teacher ed programs,” he says, “but it’s hard to attract sufficient numbers to come west of the Rockies when starting salaries are dramatically lower than other parts of Canada. And you have the affordability crisis playing out, in the Lower Mainland, anyway.”

The high cost of living has played a part in the attrition rate at least one West Vancouver school.

“Both last year and the current year, we’ve been able to fill our positions,” says John Wray. But the head of Mulgrave School in West Van says he has seen some of his talent flee for points east, and closer to home.

“They were travelling long distances from Coquitlam, Surrey, out in the Valley in order to afford a house for their families,” says Wray. “And traffic and congestion aren’t getting any easier.”

When the public school hiring took place, he says, “the teachers were faced with the opportunity of working next door to where they live, and having the opportunity to spend 10-15 hours more a week with their families.”

He believes the system will eventually regain balance.

“The context here is the severe cost-of-living and traffic issues facing everyone in the central Vancouver area. That’s not just education, that’s every business.”