By Tommy Osborne

Teacher Concerns

Teachers concerned of “crisis” surrounding overworking, resources

Jun 10, 2025 | 4:17 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – An annual survey by the B.C. Teacher’s Federation (BCTF) revealed teachers across the province have big concerns, calling for urgent action to address many concerns surrounding resources allocated to schools. Locally, the Prince George District Teacher’s Association (PGDTA) says it shares these concerns.

“Teachers and professionals and other workers in schools are working really, really hard to try to meet the needs of the kids. But, really, it’s unmanageable,” said the PGDTA’s President Katherine Trepanier.

“We are facing a crisis in the workload that’s happening in our schools right now,” she continued.

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Among other key issues, the survey highlighted the need for “urgent action” to ensure the diverse intellectual, psychological and social needs of students are being met. Results showed less than 25% of teachers felt the academic, social, and emotional needs of students were adequately addressed, and only 13% of teachers felt the needs of students with disabilities were being met.

“When kids needs aren’t being met, then we start to see behaviors that happen that create other issues in classrooms,” Trepanier said.

A graph from the BCTF showcasing the gap between funding received by schools, versus the amount schools are spending on inclusive education

Trepanier says the 2023-24 school year saw the province fund 72% of what schools actually spend on inclusive education, a trend that has lasted 17 years. But it’s not just inclusive education feeling the pinch, as Trepanier went on to say that the entire education system has lost significant funding over the years, going from around 2.7% of the province’s GDP in 2000, to 1.6% last year.

“The B.C. NDP government promised that they would put an educational assistant in every primary classroom. We’re pretty far away from that right now in B.C., I think 80% of teachers in the survey who are primary teachers (kindergarten to grade 3) said that they do not have a classroom assigned educational assistant,” Trepanier said.

“The government promised that they would have a counselor assigned to every school to support the mental health needs of our kids. And again, we’re very far away from that as well, so we’re hoping that the NDP will fulfill the promises that they made in the election to have that happen,” she continued.

These resource issues have also led to more mental health concerns among teachers, with one of seven teachers in the survey reporting poor or very poor mental health. Not only does this stress lead to potentially worse classroom settings for students, Trepanier adds it adds to an already existing staffing issue.

“There are lots of qualified teachers out there that have chosen to leave teaching, unfortunately, because they want to have some sort of level of work-life balance, and teaching is becoming really challenging and it’s hard to sustain that for a really long time,” she said.

“We’re trying to do more and more with less and less and it’s not sustainable,” she continued.

Trepanier said teachers get into the profession because they are dedicated and really care about helping kids grow, but if the situation doesn’t improve, it could grow increasingly challenging for many dedicated teachers to continue providing a high quality learnig experience.

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