BCTF A Year After Landmark Court Decision

It’s almost been one year since the BC Teachers Federation won a historic supreme court case to change class size and composition.

Last November BCTF was able to change the language on the collective agreement, which means smaller class sizes, more specialist like councillors working with students, full-time teacher-librarians back in the libraries, and re-opening some closed schools.

Although there has been some positive changes, with over 3,000 new teachers brought in, there is still more obstacles to overcome, like how to attract more teachers to the north.

PG District Teachers Association Joanne Hapke says she knows BCTF will be advocating for different initiatives that the government can implement.

“Student loan forgiveness would be one, but we also have to address the teacher wages in British Columbia. They are lower then in other provinces and so if we want to bring people from another province we have to give them financial incentives to come.”

When it comes to wages in BC we’re sitting at $49,410 on average, which is in the middle compared to the rest of Canada.

Alberta makes the most at $58,500, which drastically increases to $99,300 after 10 years of experience.

Hapke adds it’s good to have supporting services back in schools, but another challenge the school districts face is the lack of teachers teaching on call.

“We have TTOC’s, but we don’t have enough to cover for sickness and for teachers to be able to attend workshops and professional development opportunities.”

This problem has effected districts in areas in the north, rural, remote and Francophone schools.

Despite the challenges, BCTF said in a statement it’s proud the accomplishments it has made since the victory at the Supreme Court of Canada a year ago.