Earlier this month, the Toronto Star published an article called, “A ‘crisis’ in GTA school staffing shortages is leading to cancelled classes, burnout and mounting pressures. Principals are sounding the alarm”.
The article reported on a recent statement by the Ontario Principals’ Council, representing 5,400 principals across the province, meant to sound the alarm “about daily staffing challenges in all employee groups, including teachers and educational assistants who help students with special needs.”
Council president Ralph Nigro told the Star that shortages stem from “insufficient staff allocations, vacancies that surface, and not having enough replacements to fill leaves and absences. Some boards can’t find qualified candidates, some can’t attract applicants to rural communities, and some say the pay for certain jobs is too low.”
Unfilled absences have a very detrimental effect on schools. They typically result in classes like music and art being cancelled, special education and ESL supports cancelled, teachers missing planning time, Education Assistants (EAs) being reassigned, classes combined, a rotating cast of substitute teachers, and a more stressful, less safe, and overall worse school day for everyone.
Trying to ease the pressure
The article notes, “The Ministry of Education is trying to ease the pressure. Last year, about 3,000 educational assistants were hired, and this year more than 2,000 teachers added. It also created a new certificate so students in teacher education programs can work as substitutes; is speeding up certification for internationally educated teachers; and is co-leading a working group with stakeholders to tackle the teacher shortage. To address the French teacher shortage it has launched a four-year plan, and the government is training an additional 110 French-language teachers this year.”
These are all fine things to do, but they won’t address the long-term reasons for understaffing. The job is getting harder. Enrollment in Teacher Education programs is incredibly low compared to the need for qualified teachers. Admissions to Ontario teacher education programs were approximately 4,500 in 2022, compared with more than 6,300 in 2014 and more than 7,600 in 2011. Class sizes are bigger than ever and the needs within them greater than ever. 95% of elementary schools cannot offer adequate mental health supports and 60,000 children are waiting for autism supports. A recent Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario survey revealed that 77% of ETFO members have experienced or witnessed violence in schools.
Compound this with the closing of special education programs and a climate in which the government and many on the right scapegoat teachers as lazy, overpaid, entitled, groomers, communists or some combination of all, and it makes the jobs unattractive and hard to fill. Consider too, the few teachers at the top who get to reach the coveted “sunshine list” now make way less in real income than when the sunshine list was first created to demonize public servants.
EA shortage
There is an even greater shortage of EAs. It makes sense when the job includes working for low wages and being regularly assaulted by students and getting a mere half hour break that sometimes doesn’t come because there is no one to cover.
The most infuriating section of the article is about sick leave:
“Rachel Chernos Lin, chair of the Toronto District School Board, the county’s largest with 235,000 students, says staffing issues are a ‘significant concern.’ And a ‘very generous sick leave policy’ means ‘the other challenge is that we spend an awful lot of money replacing people.’ In Ontario, permanent staff – including administrators, teachers and education workers – are entitled to 11 sick days at full pay, and 120 days of short-term leave at 90 per cent of their salary.”
Characterizing the sick leave policy as “very generous” in an article like this, while my school alone has at least three workers out on medical leave after being assaulted by students is a slap in the face to the workers staying in the profession and working to do more with less. The fact of the matter is, all these problems of violence, understaffing, burnout and unfulfilled student needs have solutions. The problem for the province is that it all costs money that the province is unwilling to pay. Since taking office in 2018, the Ford government has cut funding for public education by $1,200 per student when accounting for inflation, while at the same time, continuing to hold billions of dollars in unspent contingency funds.
Solutions?
Public education will simply get worse if it is not funded adequately. All the streamlined application processes, quicker onboarding times and shorter teacher education programs won’t solve the long-term problems in Ontario education that are driving understaffing and burnout. What students and staff in the province need are improved working conditions and addressing violence through smaller class sizes, more supports for students, and hiring many, many more EAs and support workers with decent pay and benefits.
Author
Did you like this article? Help us produce more like it by donating $1, $2, or $5. Donate