B.C. teacher shortage a 'really severe crisis,' union president says

The new academic year has kicked off but as students fill B.C.'s classrooms, educators warn there aren’t enough teachers to fill positions.

A teacher shortage has been a growing problem, according to Clint Johnston the president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

"It's a really severe crisis right now,” he said.

In a recent survey of its members, 80 per cent of teachers said they were impacted by the shortage last year.

"The top way they were impacted was the inability to provide all the supports to students that they knew those students should have,” said Johnston.

The exact number of vacant positions is unclear. The missing information is something Johnston is calling on the province to gather after Quebec collected data to determine about 8,500 positions were unfilled in that province.

However, B.C.'s Education Minister Rachna Singh says the province is not in a position to collect the data.

"We over look the whole situation but at the local level it's the school districts which would have the clear information, clear data where the actual gaps are."

Instead, Singh says her government is working to create more teacher training seats and looking at recognizing foreign credentials to boost the number of educators.

“We think teachers work really hard to support the students,” she said. “Any kind of support needed for the teachers, the government is willing to work with the unions and also the school districts.”

Reid Clark, the president of the Chilliwack Teachers Association, believes the focus should be on retention.

"We see a revolving door in classrooms,” said Clark, saying it's too common for students to have multiple teachers in a single year.

He says the district is starting to see teachers leave the profession after five to 10 years on the job, citing additional workload and pay as reasons why.

The Chilliwack District hired 70 uncertified on-call teachers to help combat the growing pressure. Still, it says the most vulnerable students feel the biggest impact.

"We often see teachers, specialist teachers, pulled left, right and centre to cover classes, to cover those vacancies and the ones that are really impacted are the students and families that really rely on those special supports," Clark said.

There are more than 6,000 new students entering public schools this year, according to the education minister.