PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George District Teachers Association (PGDTA) is sounding the alarm about the lack of teachers on call (TTOC) available in School District 57.
“We’re in a desperate situation honestly,” says Katherine Trepanier, Second Vice-President of the PGDTA
The binder in the PGDTA office filled with hundreds of forms from teachers shows just how much time has been taken away from students already this year.
Teachers within schools but not necessarily in a classroom are called non-enrolling teachers.
Every time a non-enrolling teacher is pulled from their normal position to backfill, that results in time lost for students.
The PGDTA has been tracking these lost hours of service, last year in September and October there were 130, this year in 22 school days, a whopping 638 hours of service to students had been lost.
“Our biggest concern is the amount of service that students are not receiving,” says Trepanier “Services like learning assistance, support, counselling, English language learning, library.”
In a district where graduation rates have been below the provincial average, the PGDTA worries that the lost hours of service could make things even worse.
Typically there should be around 100 TTOC’s, although right now only 35 are employed by School District 57.
Senior staff at SD57 say they are well aware of the issue and are doing everything they can to try and hire more teachers.
Recently the district made it easier for retired teachers to return as TTOC’s, and are currently working with UNBC to access students in the education program as temporary solutions.
There are currently several dozen teaching positions in School District 57 posted online that have not been filled.
