Latest news with #SurreySchools
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teacher shortages persisted this school year. What's being done to fill the gap for the next?
For several months this year, Katherine Korakakis' kids had substitute instructors that were "not qualified to teach the subject," said the Montreal parent, whose province started this school year thousands of teachers short. "It wasn't a math teacher who was teaching math. It wasn't a French teacher who was teaching French." She was already worried about learning loss after the pandemic, and scrambled to get her teens extra tutoring, a luxury she knows not everyone can afford. "Having a child score in the high 90s … one year in math and then having a non-qualified teacher coming in the second year and the child scoring a 50 — there's something wrong here," she said. Teacher shortages have become an issue in nearly every province and territory. Kids facing one substitute teacher after another. French taught by a non-speaker. Relying on uncertified adults to supervise classrooms. While some governments suggest an aging workforce and growing populations are behind the shortages, teachers themselves point to working conditions. So what's being done to improve the situation for next year? 'Just getting through the day' In Surrey, B.C., Anne Whitmore noted that in her children' 17-class elementary school, four teachers were on leave as the school year concluded. Whenever a classroom teacher was away, her kids said, they sometimes got a substitute for part of the day, but also likely saw another class's teacher, the librarian, the music instructor and the principal fill in. "How do you learn in an environment where you have no continuity?" Whitmore asked. "They're trying to scramble and have some kind of educational content, but really they're just getting through the day." Constantly backfilling others leaves fellow teachers, support staffers, guidance counsellors and administrators delaying their own responsibilities to students, "who now don't have access to those adults when they need them," said Brampton, Ont., high school science teacher Jason Bradshaw. Alison Osborne, who served as president of the Ontario Principals' Council this year, describes the situation as the worst she's seen in her 17 years as a principal, with administrators "constantly monitoring our phones just to see what the situation we're going to be walking into the next day," she said. What's influencing shortages? The overall number of educators in K-12 public schools rose slightly — around three per cent — from 401,286 in 2018-2019 to 413,667 in 2022-2023, according to Statistics Canada, but depending on the region, the figures have wavered during that period. CBC News asked each provincial and territorial ministry of education about teacher shortages, with B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and New Brunswick responding. Some cited retirement of an aging workforce and rapid population growth as key factors influencing current shortages. WATCH | How teacher shortages came to 'a crisis point': Limited housing and a higher cost of living have perennially kept more teachers from certain regions, including remote and rural areas, said Clint Johnston, president designate of the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF), the national group representing the unions of more than 365,000 K-12 teachers and education workers. Yet Johnston says today's working conditions are what's behind current shortages, as teachers bail on the traditional 30-to-35-year teaching careers. "There's a lot of certified individuals in most of our provinces and territories, but … they're not sticking with it," Johnston said from Vancouver. "There's not enough support workers. There's not enough teachers … everyone's workload has gone up and become untenable." An online CTF survey last fall drew nearly 5,000 responses from Canadian teachers, education workers and principals. While not statistically representative of the 365,000 educators represented by its members unions, those who chose to respond paint a difficult picture. Nearly 80 per cent of respondents reported struggling to cope, 55 per cent had experienced violence or aggression over the year prior and 77 per cent called students' needs "significantly more complex" than five years earlier. The constant pivoting educators were forced into during COVID-19 also took a toll, says science teacher Bradshaw. Given that a key pandemic lesson was to take better care of ourselves, "that can mean stepping away from stressful work … where you feel you're being overextended." Job 'isn't worth the conditions that we're facing' Some areas are struggling to attract young people to the field, with even brand new teachers experiencing burnout. Having found engineering work isolating after obtaining a bachelor's in biology, Jadine Kirst chose to become a teacher instead since she loved working with kids, felt inspired by lifelong educators she knew and saw the need for more teachers. Her enthusiasm quickly evaporated, however, after just one year teaching Grade 8 in a francophone school in New Brunswick. "We had students figuring out loopholes so that they could look at pornography on their in-class iPads. We had a few students who threatened my life — one of [whom] needed to have their locker searched for weapons," she said. Once, asking a student to stop talking mid-lesson sparked a barrage of insults and profanity, with Krist feeling "futile" as she tried to calm his screaming. "I couldn't call the principal; the principal was probably too busy dealing with other students," she said, recalling feeling alone, without any recourse and worn down. She still works in education, but no longer in the classroom. "People who aren't aware of the reality today still look at teaching as an excellent job with two months off and a great pension, but it isn't worth the conditions that we're facing." WATCH | Teachers' federation leader on past classroom challenges on his mind 'to this day': What's being done about shortages Several ministries of education that responded to CBC News' queries noted ongoing efforts to address the problem, including: Funding programs for rural and remote teacher candidates to train in their home communities (B.C. and Alberta). Ontario and New Brunswick are allowing teachers' colleges to accept more students, while several regions have also floated the idea of accelerating or condensing teacher training, including in Ontario (which had initially doubled the length of study a decade ago to stem a vast supply of new teachers outstripping jobs available for them). Streamlining educator training is of course possible, says Brock University professor David Hutchison, yet he thinks it would likely cut into the invaluable time aspiring teachers spend inside real schools. He also predicts a negative impact to the parts of teacher training that were added more recently, for instance about student mental health, use of technology and artificial intelligence, or teaching students whose first language isn't English or French. "These are the new realities of being a student in Ontario and other provinces as well and we have an obligation to prepare [new teachers]," he said. While Ontario principal Osborne welcomes any effort to entice people to education, she worries whether they'd stick around without real change to classroom conditions. "When we talk about recruiting new teachers, new education workers, I'm not sure it's always an appealing environment to work in," she said. Science teacher Bradshaw wants to see deeper, ongoing investment versus short-term fixes. "If [governments] want to show teachers that they are valued and respected and give people a reason to come into … and stay in this profession, we have to know that they're going to invest in us long term," he said, including pay that keeps up with inflation (versus sign-on bonuses) and increased mobility, since where a teacher starts may not be where they want to stay. What do aspiring teachers think? "Knowing that teachers are needed everywhere is awesome," said teacher-candidate Serzna Issadien, who's nearing the end of a Brock University program mixing an undergraduate degree with a bachelor's of education. Still, she's uneasy about initiatives that may "just flood the market with more teachers" without adequate training, given the chaotic reality she's already seen, having filled in as an emergency substitute in the St. Catharines, Ont., region. Bridgette Walpole, another teacher-candidate close to completing her Brock training, is eager to dive into her dream profession despite a belief that most don't really understand the job nor the mix of classroom challenges today. "From a student's perspective, you see [teachers] handing out assessments. You see them standing at the front of the class delivering content," she said. "You don't see them creating the actual materials for each and every student that learns in a bunch of different ways. You don't understand the many different hats that they wear…. You're really everyone all at once."
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
B.C. minister defends progress on building more schools in Surrey
B.C.'s infrastructure minister has defended her government's progress on building more schools in Surrey, even as two more schools in the city will shift to a staggered schedule to deal with overcrowding. Fraser Heights and Sullivan Heights secondary schools will shift to having class times adjusted to start earlier, and end later, in order to squeeze a fifth block of classes into the daily schedule. That means eight schools in B.C.'s largest school district will have staggered schedules in total, as the Surrey School District's long-runningovercrowdingproblems continue to lead to parent frustration. District officials have defended the practice of extending days and say staff have been able to manage the workload, while the minister responsible for building more infrastructure has said around $1 billion has been spent on new schools and school additions in Surrey since however, say that officials aren't moving fast enough to deal with a problem that has festered for years, and students' futures are getting caught in the crossfire. "The inconsistency is completely disruptive and the inequity, and lack of awareness of the inequity, is astounding," said Cindy Dalglish, whose daughter studies at Salish Secondary School, which was on staggered start times last year. "These decisions are not student centred at all." Dalglish said the inconsistency in school starting times means that parents have to juggle work responsibilities to get their kids to school and extracurriculars and study schedules are thrown in flux daily. "We already have, you know, a high level of curriculum coming into them," the parent said. "She is one of those go-getter kids that has really hard, hard classes .... they're cramming more into these [classes] this time." Sally Huang, the president of the Fraser Heights Secondary parent advisory committee, said that the staggered start times were also hard on staff, even as she acknowledged staggered start times were preferable to online learning. "The Surrey students' population growth is not new news," she said. "It has been steadily growing [over] the years, especially since COVID and a lot of young families, we heard, moved here looking for affordable housing. "So why hasn't the government kept up with that reality? Why hasn't there been a timely capital investment in new schools and classrooms?" Year-round schooling being considered Terry Allen, the vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education, defended the staggered start times, and commended staff for dealing with the added workload. Allen said the feedback the school board has received has been positive, and he was disappointed to learn that parents weren't satisfied with their kids' learning experience. "The reality is, though, that there's really no other choice," Allen said of the extended school days. "We don't have enough schools in Surrey, and if we don't find some way of creating more space in the schools we have, it can only get worse and certainly not better."Allen said that year-round schooling was being given serious thought at the Surrey school board, and that if they failed to receive new schools, everything was on the table. "Parents will have a problem with it, and I don't blame them," he said. "Simply because the provincial government is not providing new schools, and new expansions to existing schools." Minister says billions being spent B.C. Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma said she sympathized with parents in Surrey, and that the school board was being creative in dealing with the overcrowding people. She said the provincial NDP government has invested $6 billion, including $1 billion in Surrey, into new schools and additions since 2017. "Recognizing that the situation that Surrey is dealing with is not ideal, there is hope on the horizon because investments are underway to bring literally thousands of new seats into the Surrey School District," she said. In response to questions about why the government had not moved faster to deal with the overcrowding issue — given the NDP has been in power since 2017 — Ma said the previous Liberal government had not built a single school in the four preceding years. She categorized the money being spent now as a "massive increase in investment" since then, and said that if population growth had stayed consistent, Surrey would actually be seeing an excess of student seats. "But the population also went through this massive increase," the minister said. "So student population increased by 11,500 in that time. This is an unprecedented population increase, we have not seen these kinds of rates of increase in B.C. before." Ma said that a recently-passed infrastructure bill will help the government streamline projects and get them built faster.
CBC
21-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
B.C. minister defends progress on building more schools in Surrey
B.C.'s infrastructure minister has defended her government's progress on building more schools in Surrey, even as two more schools in the city will shift to a staggered schedule to deal with overcrowding. Fraser Heights and Sullivan Heights secondary schools will shift to having class times adjusted to start earlier, and end later, in order to squeeze a fifth block of classes into the daily schedule. That means eight schools in B.C.'s largest school district will have staggered schedules in total, as the Surrey School District's long-running overcrowding problems continue to lead to parent frustration. District officials have defended the practice of extending days and say staff have been able to manage the workload, while the minister responsible for building more infrastructure has said around $1 billion has been spent on new schools and school additions in Surrey since 2017. WATCH | Parents outraged over staggered school days: Staggered school times at Surrey, B.C., schools terrible for staff, parents say 3 days ago Duration 10:33 Fraser Heights and Sullivan Heights secondary schools in Surrey are expected to stagger start times so that school space is available for them in the fall. Cindy Dalglish says the staggered schedule at her child's school, Salish Secondary, is very disruptive for working parents. Sally Huang, who is the PAC president at Fraser Heights, called the changes terrible and horrifying. Parents, however, say that officials aren't moving fast enough to deal with a problem that has festered for years, and students' futures are getting caught in the crossfire. "The inconsistency is completely disruptive and the inequity, and lack of awareness of the inequity, is astounding," said Cindy Dalglish, whose daughter studies at Salish Secondary School, which was on staggered start times last year. "These decisions are not student centred at all." Dalglish said the inconsistency in school starting times means that parents have to juggle work responsibilities to get their kids to school and extracurriculars and study schedules are thrown in flux daily. "We already have, you know, a high level of curriculum coming into them," the parent said. "She is one of those go-getter kids that has really hard, hard classes .... they're cramming more into these [classes] this time." Sally Huang, the president of the Fraser Heights Secondary parent advisory committee, said that the staggered start times were also hard on staff, even as she acknowledged staggered start times were preferable to online learning. "The Surrey students' population growth is not new news," she said. "It has been steadily growing [over] the years, especially since COVID and a lot of young families, we heard, moved here looking for affordable housing. "So why hasn't the government kept up with that reality? Why hasn't there been a timely capital investment in new schools and classrooms?" Year-round schooling being considered Terry Allen, the vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education, defended the staggered start times, and commended staff for dealing with the added workload. Allen said the feedback the school board has received has been positive, and he was disappointed to learn that parents weren't satisfied with their kids' learning experience. "The reality is, though, that there's really no other choice," Allen said of the extended school days. "We don't have enough schools in Surrey, and if we don't find some way of creating more space in the schools we have, it can only get worse and certainly not better." WATCH | Terry Allen defends staggered start times: 2 more Surrey, B.C., schools to have staggered start times 4 days ago Duration 9:01 Amid a funding crunch in B.C.'s biggest school district, Fraser Heights and Sullivan Heights secondary schools in Surrey are expected to stagger start times so that school space is available for them. Terry Allen, vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education, said the issue of school space will only get worse if the province doesn't step up with more funding. Allen said that year-round schooling was being given serious thought at the Surrey school board, and that if they failed to receive new schools, everything was on the table. "Parents will have a problem with it, and I don't blame them," he said. "Simply because the provincial government is not providing new schools, and new expansions to existing schools." Minister says billions being spent B.C. Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma said she sympathized with parents in Surrey, and that the school board was being creative in dealing with the overcrowding people. She said the provincial NDP government has invested $6 billion, including $1 billion in Surrey, into new schools and additions since 2017. "Recognizing that the situation that Surrey is dealing with is not ideal, there is hope on the horizon because investments are underway to bring literally thousands of new seats into the Surrey School District," she said. In response to questions about why the government had not moved faster to deal with the overcrowding issue — given the NDP has been in power since 2017 — Ma said the previous Liberal government had not built a single school in the four preceding years. She categorized the money being spent now as a "massive increase in investment" since then, and said that if population growth had stayed consistent, Surrey would actually be seeing an excess of student seats. "But the population also went through this massive increase," the minister said. "So student population increased by 11,500 in that time. This is an unprecedented population increase, we have not seen these kinds of rates of increase in B.C. before." Ma said that a recently-passed infrastructure bill will help the government streamline projects and get them built faster.
CBC
13-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
How can Surrey schools keep up with the city's booming population?
Surrey schools are on track to see a $16-million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year. The Surrey Board of Education says that's because provincial funding is not keeping pace with inflation and rapid population growth. The Early Edition's Stephen Quinn spoke with school board chair Gary Tymoschuk about the issue.
CBC
03-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Surrey School Board faces $16M shortfall, considers cuts to elementary band program
Social Sharing Families in Surrey, B.C. are bracing for more cuts as the city's school board says it struggles to balance its budget, putting elementary band programs among those at risk of being reduced or eliminated. The Surrey Board of Education says it is facing a $16-million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year. It has already reduced bus services and has been closing down learning centres. Now it's reviewing programs that are not part of the B.C. curriculum, including elementary band, in an effort "to look for efficiencies" and align programming more closely with other districts across the province, according to Surrey Schools superintendent Mark Pearmain. "The Board foresees significant challenges and expects to make strategic decisions that allow them to ensure a balanced budget," Pearmain said in a statement this week. Parents push back against cuts Surrey parent Amy Kinvig, whose two sons participated in the music program at Surrey Central Elementary, fears her 11-year-old daughter, Ayla, will lose the same opportunity. "It really created a safe space and an outlet for them, and I would like [my daughter] to be able to experience and grow that creative side of her as well," Kinvig said. She says these programs offer more than just musical education. "A band is a team. They can share their experiences, build friendships…. It's for their mental health," she said. Frustrated by the potential cuts, Kinvig urged the board to find a solution: "Come up with the money, make it work." An online petition calling for the preservation of the music programs has gathered more than 2,200 signatures. Board cites lack of provincial funding The school board says funding constraints could also impact Strong Start, a free drop-in program that supports young children's development before they enter school. "The only way we can deal with the shortfall is through changes to the programs that we deliver," said board vice-chair Terry Allen. Allen said the district has been forced to make difficult decisions due to provincial funding not keeping pace with inflation and rapid population growth. "Everybody in this entire province knows what inflation has done to their budgets, let alone a budget of over a billion dollars, and how it negatively impacts the Surrey school district," he said. WATCH | White Rock Learning Centre to close as lease expires: White Rock learning centre to close as lease expires 2 months ago Duration 2:19 The vice-chair added that the district is struggling with growing costs, particularly around supporting diverse learners, noting that Surrey Schools spends $54 million more annually on special education than the province provides. "Most people don't know that beyond per-student funding, Surrey Schools does not receive any funds specifically for busing, band, Strong Start, learning centres, related infrastructure, building leases and portable moves," he said. The district's current budget is $1.142 billion and was passed with "difficult, sometimes heartbreaking" cuts, according to the board. The board says 93 per cent of its budget goes to teacher and staff salaries and benefits, leaving little flexibility for cost reductions elsewhere. The Ministry of Education and Child Care says it has steadily increased operational funding for the Surrey school district since 2017, committing more than $1 billion in operating and special grants for the current year. "This builds on the Province's record capital investments of nearly $1 billion in Surrey — more than any other district in B.C," Minister Lisa Beare said in a statement to CBC News. She said the province is working with the district to address financial challenges. "We recognize Surrey is one of B.C.'s fastest-growing communities, and my ministry will continue to collaborate with the district to identify and address challenges so that all students can get what they need to succeed and thrive in school." Surrey District Parent Advisory Council president Anne Whitmore says parents are frustrated with the ministry's response. "The answer from the ministry seems to be that districts need to handle their funds better…. Districts are not running with luxurious programs," she said. "We wish that was the case and there were extras to be removed without much impact on students." Whitmore says the cuts will disproportionately affect students who rely on these programs for support and engagement. "Those that are on the fringe, gifted students who need challenging programs, or students who enjoy music and rely on it to stay engaged in their education … those are some of the first services that will be cut." The Surrey School Board has extended the deadline for parents and caregivers to provide input on its 2025-26 budget through an online survey, now open until April 6. The board has a legal obligation to pass a balanced budget by June 30, 2025.
