“I was getting ready to tattoo that number on my arm,” said Ansems, who graduated this spring from Halifax’s Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor of Education.
Ansems, who focused on middle school math and science, took a leap in her career when Nova Scotia gave early certification to nearly 300 graduating teacher candidates so they could fill in as substitute teachers during a of another wave of COVID-19.
The shortage of teachers and certified substitutes to fill them has emerged as a major disruption in Canadian classrooms in previous waves of the pandemic and is also expected to continue this fall. But there’s a new group of young educators — like Ansems — eager to fill the gaps this coming school year, especially after many have seen firsthand in recent years how much they’re needed.
But some face barriers — both new and pre-pandemic — to getting steady work in classrooms.
Megan Anshams spent the spring as a substitute teacher after Nova Scotia granted early certification to education students near graduation to ease staffing shortages due to COVID-19. She is gearing up for casual teaching again this fall, but is also waiting to hear about long-term teaching positions. (Dylan Jones/CBC)
Now working at a summer day camp in Kentville, New York, Anshams is waiting to teach the job applications she sent in, but also prepare to return to everyday substitute teaching.
“I’m excited to get back on the school board and continue for September, October, as long as they’ll have me,” she said.
“I’m so close, but I still can’t grab that job or that dream”
In Ontario, where a program granted provisional certification to prospective teachers nearing graduation, Chelsey Brassard also had a busy spring teaching as a substitute. After applying for provisional certification in January during her last semester at the University of Ottawa, she was approved in May — after she had already finished her program and graduated. With that under her belt, Brassard said she was called in as a supply teacher every school day until the end of June. WATCHES | Delays difficult financially and emotionally, prospective teachers say:
Potential teachers say certificate delays are “putting a damper” on their careers
Chelsey Brassard and Taylor Harnden, who have both applied for their teaching certificates from the Ontario College of Teachers, say the delays have been financially and emotionally difficult, keeping them out of the classroom when they could be teaching. However, now in mid-August, Brassard has yet to receive permanent status despite having graduated. She says she paid fees to the provincial teacher certification agency and submitted her documents multiple times. started the process in 2021 because it expected delays. Brassard is eligible to work as a daily on-call teacher under her temporary certificate until it expires in December, but she believes that without permanent status, she is being held back. “Some schools will hire you, provided you get your full license before it expires. Some schools have said, ‘We don’t want to take that risk,’” he said. “[It’s] It’s really frustrating to see now that I’m so close, but I still can’t grab that job or that dream.” In a statement to CBC News, the Ontario College of Teachers said most delays are due to “incomplete applications” and said applications are processed within 30 business days. “The college cannot begin evaluating an application until we receive a complete application, including all required documents and applicable fees. In almost all cases, certification delays are associated with incomplete applications,” a spokesperson said. “We expect Ontario’s spring 2022 graduates to be certified in the coming weeks.” WATCHES | Concerned professor at ‘incredibly frustrating’ certification delay discourages teachers:
“Frustrating” delay in certification can discourage teachers, says professor
University of Ottawa professor Joel Westheimer says delays in getting certification from the Ontario College of Teachers are contributing to the broader teacher shortage by keeping qualified teachers on the sidelines. University of Ottawa education professor Joel Westheimer said he is concerned about roadblocks to new teachers at a time of “almost unprecedented teacher shortages in Ontario and many other provinces across Canada.” “What I don’t want to see is new teachers walking away or getting out of the queue to become teachers because they’re so frustrated with the process,” said Westheimer, the university’s Research Chair in Democracy and Education. The goal should be “to move people from their education programs to classrooms as quickly and smoothly as possible,” he added.
Several factors contribute to teacher shortages
In different locations, different factors can keep teachers from getting into classrooms that need them, and it’s a complex problem that deserves attention, said Allyson Jule, president of the Association of the BC Deans of Education and an executive at the Association of Canadian Deans of Education. . . “The teacher shortage is a major crisis for the country,” he said. The issue of teacher shortages is “a complex problem. It won’t have simple solutions,” says Allyson Jule, professor and dean of education at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, BC (Wendy Lees) In BC, for example, after a landmark decision of the Supreme Court When it comes to BC class sizes in 2016, the number of teachers needed in the classroom skyrocketed. At the same time, Jule said, the teachers of B.C. they earn lower wages on average than their counterparts in other provinces, while incurring high costs for housing, food and other necessities. Then it may be less attractive for new graduate teachers to stay in the province, even when they are much needed, Jule explained. More broadly, teacher shortages are a chronic challenge for many rural, remote and indigenous communities across the country, he said. Homelessness is a key factor in some areas. For others it is the unpredictable work environment for casual/substitute teachers. Jule also noted that with most training programs located in urban centers, many who are interested in teaching but live far from major cities must leave their home communities to access training. Then they don’t always come back after graduation. Two avenues he would like to see explored more include programs that combine distance and in-person studies and, more generally, expanding the number of places in teacher education programs.
“It’s a complex problem. It won’t have simple solutions”
The PK Ministry of Education and Child Care has acknowledged that there is a shortage in some areas of the province. “We know that some long-standing pressures continue to fill posts in rural and remote areas, as well as for [substitute, on-call teachers] and special roles,” a spokesman said in a statement that also described efforts in recent years to address the shortages. These include adding places to educational programs, working to boost the number of indigenous and francophone teachers, the strategy for rural areas, brand new blended learning program at the University of British Columbia and updates on the certification of internationally qualified teachers and the turnaround time for teacher certifications overall. Jule said she believes finding solutions will require everyone — school boards, teachers unions, ministries of education, governing bodies, teachers colleges — to come together to explore and address the many reasons behind chronic teacher shortages related to pandemic. “It’s a complex problem. It’s not going to have simple solutions. It needs deeper conversations that are ongoing.” Chelsey Brassard received provisional certification from the Ontario College of Teachers in May and worked consistently as a supply teacher for the last two months of the past school year. Without a permanent certification, however, the recent University of Ottawa graduate says she’s been shut out of more consistent and steady work. (Sylvain Lepage/CBC) Back in Nova Scotia, Ansems said she’s optimistic about the fall, but also checking her mail for the paper certificate confirming her as a teacher. She expects she may need it if she applies to teach out of province. In a statement, Nova Scotia’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development told CBC News that, with only a few exceptions, “teachers who received their conditional certification in the spring have become permanent in Nova Scotia” and that it serves an email license number as ” certificate of their permanent certification”. “It’s one of those things that says, ‘Am I really a teacher if I don’t have this special piece of paper?’ Ansems said. “Much more [my friends] they’ve found jobs, we’re very excited about the school year and we’re all very, very excited to be in the classrooms in September.”
