BC Teacher’s Federation President Teri Mooring says the pandemic is contributing to a high number of teacher’s absences in Prince George.
“This is something that we were really concerned about, because we don’t think there’s adequate safety measures in place for teachers,” Mooring said.
“In the absence of prioritizing teachers for booster shots, and supplying teachers with N95 masks, we think we’re going to see more and more people get sick with Omicron.”
Mooring added it’s not just teachers who are absent but it’s everyone in the system being impacted, but other staff in schools as well.
Mooring also says Omicron has highlighted another problem in the North, a significant teacher shortage.
“When teachers and education assistants are away, there just aren’t certified teachers to replace them, there just aren’t enough,” Mooring explained.
“It’s not just a teacher shortage, it’s an education assistant shortage as well. That’s part of the problem, that lack of backup when people are sick.”
Mooring said there’s a heavy reliance on retired teachers to not only fill in for sick teachers, but to take on short-term contracts in Prince George.
“Retired teachers have chosen, many of them, not to work during this time which is really understandable, so the pandemic has made the teacher shortage worse, and it already was a dire situation, especially in the North.”
According to Mooring, the province delegated the decision to make functional closures happen to each School District.
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