“Half of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years.”
That’s from Prince George District Teacher’s Association President Daryl Beauregard as 59 teaching positions remain unfilled to begin the school year, less than half of them are in the K-1 and high school levels (25).
In an interview with Vista Radio, Beauregard told MyPGNow.com it is astounding the Ministry of Education isn’t tracking how many educators the province is shy of, similar to what Quebec has done.
“For this government to not know how many teachers they are short provincially – that is concerning, if you don’t know how big the problem is and some of the factors in different communities, how can you do anything about it?”
“They really need to make sure that the public education service in British Columbia is an attractive place to stay and work and the conditions are not such that people burn out. Because the statistic in the service is half of new teachers quit within the first five years,” added Beauregard.
“We’ve got to do something about that.”
Beauregard added the teacher shortage in PG has not been improving over the last couple of years.
He noted this is leading them to rely on uncertified on-call teachers to meet demand as well as trying to convince retired educators to come back to work in addition to some other steps.
“Our support specialist teachers are pulled to cover classrooms. There are no teachers on-call left and that means multiple students who need that time with a counselor or learning assistant are simply not able to access that support. It creates a bit of a deficit for having those students’ needs met.”
“It’s not ideal and we are just one of many districts all around us that are feeling it very severely.”
“Victoria, the ministry, and this province, really need a provincial strategy that looks at each district and what are the issues facing recruitment and retention. They need to put the resources in place to help those districts.”
Last week, BC Teachers Federation President Clint Johnston echoed similar sentiments in an earlier interview with MyPGNow.com.
“It was quite good to see what came out of Quebec because it shows that they are actually tracking it. I think that one of our biggest problems in BC is that there is nobody tracking information. You know, it’s the number one question I get asked when I do these interviews and we don’t have a numerical answer because nobody is tracking those shortages,” said Johnston.
“We are even wondering if some of the classrooms will be able to open fully staffed. It is an ongoing concern for us, which we have been trying to lobby the ministry to address for quite some time now, but, going into the school year, we still have that uncertainty.”
Johnston noted that while bigger centres like Langley and Chilliwack have put the “Help Wanted” sign out for uncertified teachers, rural and remote communities would likely feel the biggest pinch.
Classes resumed across the province on Tuesday.
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