The Ministry of Education will fund more than 1,000 new teaching positions to be created across British Columbia.
Education Minister Mike Bernier’s announced this commitment on Jan. 6 after an agreement was reached between the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation and the BC Public School Employers’ Association (government negotiators).
Both sides acknowledge this as a first step in restoring collective agreement provisions in response to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in November, as negotiations continue.
Cariboo-Chilcotin Teachers’ Association (CCTA) president Murray Helmer says he is glad to see the hiring of new teachers for public schools and students across the province, who need this support.
“It’s good to see some of the ‘fruits’ of the supreme court decision so quickly.”
The funding is $50 million for the 2016-17 school year – equivalent to compensation for approximately 1,100 teachers.
However, how it will affect the longterm education budgets for school districts is unknown until Premier Christy Clark releases the budget in March, he notes.
“This isn’t really new money for education, it’s money that has been taken out of education for so long… $50 million sounds great, it’s really been about $3 billion in the last 15 years that has been taken as a result of having those contracts stripped.”
The CCTA has not yet been told how much of this will be applied in School District #27 (SD27) – or for how long, he adds.
For this school year, Helmer suspects it will be similar to SD27’s share of about $800,000 from the ministry’s new Teacher Education Fund in the last increase of $80 million a year, after the previous round of contract negotiations with the BCTF.
“That’s not going to be enough on the short-term. What we are looking for is probably ensuring that the secondary schools going into Semester 2 [in February] are taken care of, because that is a good starting point.
“It’s like a mid-term is starting, so we can have those positions in place and the timeline is in place and if we decided on those jobs in the next week or so, we can have those jobs posted and hopefully filled… in the two [SD27] high schools.”
Elementary schools typically involve many non-enrolling positions for learning support and teacher-librarians, which can be created and filled without any undue stress on classrooms, he explains.
Helmer says counsellors, or a second teacher assistant can be helpful, which are the types of supports for teachers and students that can be added without disruption to a classroom.
However, another concern is in this district, he thinks it’s “going to be a challenge” recruiting the people they need.
“The majority of these positions are likely specialist-type positions, and when the demand is just local, it’s hard enough to find people – but when that demand is province-wide, coming to the Cariboo-Chilcotin is [often] not a graduate’s first choice.”
However, part of Helmer’s outlook, and his message to those graduates, is much more hopeful.
“Province-wide, it is a good start and we are off to what hopefully will be a boon for education in B.C.”
Cariboo-Chilcotin is an area that is just as needy and just as worthy and has a totally different atmosphere and it’s worth trying to see how that fit for people.”
He says the CCTF sometimes invests its union dues in helping to attract more teachers to SD27, and he hopes parents and teachers will stay positive and help portray this important message.
