Too many jobs, not enough graduates, says teachers association

The president of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association is worried there aren't enough graduates coming out of university to fill the high volume of jobs across the province in coming years.

In April, George Daley said the anglophone school districts had to fill 175 openings including five principal jobs for the upcoming school year because more and more teachers are retiring. That doesn't include the additional 96 teaching jobsput into the collective agreement this year.

Although Daley said all those jobs have been filled for the 2018-2019 school year, he's worried about the increase in openings in the next five years in New Brunswick's anglophone school districts.

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"I don't believe we have adequate numbers coming out of the universities to fill those roles," he said in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton. "We don't have any teachers."

Daley expects up to 200 teachers a year will retire over the next few years a total of 1,000 teachers in five years.

The most demanding of those positions, are French immersion teachers.

"If you have a French immersion certification you can pretty well write your ticket and go anywhere in this country right now," he said.

Before the university could possibly even think about making the changes on this end, we need to have some very hard and convincing evidence.-Grant Williams, director of the school of educationat St. Thomas University.

He's also worried about the lack of supply teachers across the province.

Last year, Daley said there were "hundreds, if not thousands" of unfilled supply days, which puts a strain on staff who end up back filling.

"I fully suspect it's going to be worse this year," he said. "It puts amazing stress back on school administrators."

He's hoping newly trained teachers will stay in the region to fill those jobs.

More seats needed in university

Daley said there areabout 240 seats for English teaching positions, including French immersion, in New Brunswick. He said between 40 and 50 per cent of those students are leaving New Brunswick or are from out of province.

"I'm looking at a pool of 120, 150 teachers who potentially stay here in New Brunswick," he said.

The New Brunswick Teachers' Association has spoken with the deans of education to find a solution to the increase of teaching jobs.

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"It's something that we've got to have a good look at, what is the demand out there and do we need more seats?" He said. "What can we do to keep teachers here in New Brunswick?"

Grant Williams, associate professor and director of the school of educationat St. Thomas University,isn't so sure more seats are warranted.

"If it needs to happen, it needs to happen," he said. "Before the university could possibly even think about making the changes on this end, we need to have some very hard and convincing evidence."

Jobs or no jobs?

Both St. Thomas University [STU]and the University of New Brunswick [UNB]are putting together a survey for education students who have graduated in the past five years.

The survey will be sent out this fall and will see whether New Brunswick graduates are working as full-time teachers, supply teachers or are out of the field entirely.

We can't just snap our fingers and say, 'OK, we'll take in 160 [seats].- SharonWahl,UNB'sdean of education.

Grant said it will allow both universities to understand the job situation in the province.

"It's hard to evaluate the dire nature of this," he said. "It's not like every available teacher in the province is currently working in a full-time contracted position."

This year there are 80 education students at STU, nine of whichare from outside the province.

He said if2/3 ofthose students stay in the province, a third of them wouldland a long-term positionout of university particularly in French immersion now that Grade 1 immersion has returned.

Seat increase will pose a challenge

If the local university does need to increase the number of seats from 90 to 120, Grantsaid it will be a challenge.

Right now there are seven full-time faculty members at the university. If more seats areneeded, that number would need to jump to nine or 10 faculty members.

"That's a lifetime commitment, we can't just hire them and say, 'We don't need you anymore,'" he said.

Sharon Wahl, UNB's dean of education, agrees.

There are 93 students taking part in their education program this year and although she would like to see additional seats at UNB, it's something that would require a lot of discussion.

She said more seats would require more faculty and space at the university.

"We can't just snap our fingers and say, 'OK, we'll take in 160 [seats]," she said.

A three-year-old executive summary of the faculty, shows between 83 and 85 per cent of UNB graduates are teaching and another 10 per cent are supply teaching. But she doesn't know how many of them are working full-time in New Brunswick.

"I'm not surprised at all to hear these stats coming out of New Brunswick," she said.

"Those figures are very similar to figures that I've seen across the country. That was not the case across the country five, seven years ago."

- With files from Information Morning Fredericton