Schools facing teacher shortage

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This article was published 30/04/2021 (1629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The latest COVID-19 challenge for Manitoba schools is a shortage of teachers who are able to be in a physical classroom — a development that has, in part, led to more schools switching to remote learning.

Since spring break, school staffing challenges have worsened, owing to rising exposures of highly infectious variants in both classrooms and communities during the third wave.

Fourteen schools were operating remotely as of Thursday. Two more schools, both in the Pembina Trails School Division, will start doing so next week.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with the variants out there,” said Jim Smith, a father of two students at École South Pointe School, who are in Grade 4 and 7. “Hopefully, in those two weeks (of remote learning), they’re able to get all the teachers vaccinated.”

Smith said both of his daughters, neither of whom has been deemed close contacts, have had substitutes this week because their teachers are self-isolating.

South Pointe and École St. Avila will shift to distance education May 3 to 17; only the children of essential workers and students who have additional needs and may be high-risk, will be able to attend school until then.

Superintendent Ted Fransen said the number of staff in self-isolation, COVID-19 cases connected to the school, community transmission, and potential for school transmission all came up in consultation with public health officials.

The substitute request fill-rate in the division was 95 per cent, until recently, Fransen said, noting it is now usually in the high 80s.

In recent days, four members of the division’s Indigenous student success team have been deployed to provide support at South Pointe.

“We continue to have a resilient, courageous teaching and school staff who will do everything they possibly can, and I say this with gratitude, to make sure that our student education remains an excellent one,” the superintendent added.

Earlier this week, the division asked high school staff to cancel substitute requests because of high demand for them in lower grades. That means school leaders, support staff and other teachers are expected to help cover colleague absences if they are available during a prep period or otherwise.

“Unless the province implements the code red shutdown in Winnipeg schools, as (the Manitoba Teachers’ Society) is calling for, I fear we will not have enough healthy teachers to supply either in-person or remote teaching needs,” said Lise Legal, president of the Pembina Trails Teachers’ Association.

All the strain on the education system prompted the teachers union to call Thursday for a universal move to remote learning in Winnipeg.

Teachers are concerned about the variants, lags in reporting on the province’s school dashboard, staffing concerns, and access to vaccines, said James Bedford, president of the society.

“There was a solution,” Bedford said, “and I say that in the past tense because the solution was to simply say teachers see a large number of students on a daily basis, we’re going to be proactive and we’re going to vaccinate all those who work in the public school system.”

The union was not satisfied Thursday after the premier announced teachers would be able to get vaccinated if they travel to North Dakota.

Meantime, some relief for staffing crunches is expected now that hundreds of student teachers are wrapping up the school year.

About 385 students from the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, Brandon University and Université de Saint-Boniface are either employed or can be employed, upon completion of faculty requirements, as of Thursday.

In total, 611 limited teaching permits have been issued during the 2020-21 school year, a provincial spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the province streamlined the permit application process and suspended fees this year in order to supplement teaching supports.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie