Teacher permit training tests patience

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This article was published 02/02/2021 (1706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jonathan McPhail is a keen student who wants to fill substitute teacher shortages. However, he says, assignment instructions on how to do just that have been murky.

On Jan. 8, the province announced Red River College was launching two condensed programs — Basic Classroom Skills for Limited Teaching Permit Holders and Educational Assistant Essentials — for Manitobans hired by school divisions to address staffing shortages.

The former, a free, week-long limited teaching permit training, was designed to provide foundational K-12 instructional skills to people hired on a temporary basis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligible candidates are required to have one or more of the following: early childhood education training, EA training, or an undergraduate degree.

An aspiring teacher with a bachelor of arts, McPhail said the program appeared to be a perfect fit. He’s out of work because of the pandemic, in the process of applying for an after-degree education program, and has watched his child’s school scramble to find substitutes this year.

No one from either Red River nor a school division, however, seems to know where exactly to point him to the right job postings. Repeated inquiries have gone unanswered or been answered with directions to existing postings that require applicants to have an education degree, he said.

“But why would you apply to this course if you had these requirements?” said McPhail, an adult student who has been going back to school over the last year to obtain teachables, bolstering his arts degree.

The six divisions headquartered in Winnipeg have either indicated they are not participating in the programs, or have not responded to his queries.

The Free Press confirmed Monday half of them: River East Transcona, Pembina Trails and Seven Oaks are not taking part in the program, citing success in how they have been filling absences this year.

Winnipeg School Division said Monday it had yet to advertise the program to staff. St. James-Assiniboia indicated it has submitted applicants for both courses.

To date, Louis Riel has received 39 limited teaching permit applications, four of which are approved staff who are attending Red River training. Seventeen candidates have their certifications pending, while the remaining are under review.

Eligible candidates have to be certified for a limited teacher permit, said superintendent Christian Michalik, who offered his apologies for any delays or miscommunications in the division.

Thirty students are currently enrolled in Red River’s limited teaching permit program, while 76 are taking the EA essentials course.

“RRC is currently seeing a high level of participation in the French-language delivery for both courses, in addition to a greater need for this type of training shown by school divisions outside of Winnipeg,” said Conor Lloyd, college spokesman, in a statement Monday.

Lloyd added the programs, created in collaboration with the Manitoba Association of School Superintendents, are open to any division should they need to recruit additional EAs or non-certified teachers.

Meantime, McPhail said he’s just about given up on the program: “It’s a little frustrating when you see a system straining, but also resisting help.” 

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie