Ontario’s public education system faces dire staffing challenges, survey finds

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The staffing challenges in Ontario’s public education system have grown so dire that more than a quarter of schools experience daily teacher shortages and nearly half have daily shortages of education support workers, a new survey has found.

In a report released on Monday, the People for Education advocacy group found that 24 per cent of elementary schools and 35 per cent of high schools experience daily teacher shortages.

Similarly, 42 per cent of elementary schools and 46 per cent of secondary schools are scrambling daily to fill in for educational assistants, who help students with special needs.

The data are part of an annual survey and based on responses from 1,030 principals from 70 of the province’s 72 publicly funded school boards.

Principals say the shortage of educational assistants means that students who are struggling don’t have the necessary supports, which can lead to behavioural issues and violence. The survey found that more than half of secondary school principals and nearly two-thirds of elementary principals said they asked parents to keep their children with special needs home for the day because they were concerned about safety – an increase from previous years.

Annie Kidder, the organization’s executive director, said that principals spend more time than ever dealing with staffing shortages, “which makes the life in school harder and makes it harder to provide kids with the good strong education they should be getting.”

“There’s a feeling of the system kind of cracking a bit under the strain,” she said.

The shortages are not isolated to Ontario schools. School boards in many parts of the country have said they struggle to find substitute educators to help fill the voids left in classrooms when permanent staff are absent.

School officials have redeployed non-classroom teaching staff and uncertified instructors in many instances to fill teaching positions temporarily.

In Nova Scotia, the government has proposed lowering the entry requirement for teacher training. The proposal would allow students to enter a bachelor education program after only two years of undergraduate study, instead of needing to complete a full degree.

In Ontario, the government and the associations that represent the province’s school trustees asked the Ontario Teachers’ Federation earlier this month to temporarily change its rules to allow retired teachers to work 95 days a year in schools with no effect on their pensions, instead of the normal 50. The OTF declined the request last week, saying that the shortages are a “systemic problem that requires systemic solutions.”

Isha Chaudhuri, a spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce, said the government is working on a “suite of actions” to address the challenges around shortages in schools. A committee led by the provincial government has been studying teacher recruitment and retention, and recommendations are expected shortly.

“We will continue to advance short- and long-term reforms to ensure certified educators are supporting students as we get back-to-basics in the classroom,” Ms. Chaudhuri said in a statement.

In the meantime, the People for Education survey concluded that many principals report that finding emergency staff had become such a large part of their job there’s little time to fulfill their role as leader in their schools.

The organization is calling for an education task force to address a range of issues, including staff shortages.

“We have this incredibly valuable asset, which is public education. We are so lucky in Canada that 90 per cent of our kids go to public schools. But we have to make sure we take care of it,” Ms. Kidder said.

“And I think right now, we’re not taking care of it well enough.”