B.C. is starting the 2017/18 school year with a shortage of 400 teachers.
The big surprise should be that the B.C. teacher shortage is not at least ten times that number.
In spite of devoting a minimum of five years in university to qualify as teachers, approximately 40 per cent of B.C.'s teachers leave the profession within seven years. Why?
Teacher salaries in B.C. are by far the lowest in western Canada - up to 30 per cent lower. Meanwhile, the cost of living in B.C. is probably the highest in the country.
B.C. also has a history of offering abysmal working conditions to teachers. B.C.'s funding for classroom support lags by approximately $1,000 per year per student below the Canadian average. That's a nearly $30,000 per year resource budget shortfall for the average teacher's classroom.
In 2002, the B.C. government violated the Canadian Charter of Rights of B.C.'s teachers by illegally stripping their employment contract.
Reinstatement of those rights was stalled until 2016, and then restored only because the Province was forced to do so by the Canadian Supreme Court.
Over the intervening years, teachers saw an average workload increase of 18 per cent as the province ostensibly "saved" $5 billion by eliminating classroom support and increasing class sizes.
Thousands of teachers paid the cruel price of workplace stress induced illnesses through their dedication to try to keep our public education system working.
Most school buildings in B.C. have suffered from maintenance budget shortfalls for decades. For example, in Kitsilano where houses sell for over $2 million each, 106-year-old Lord Tennyson elementary school has for years had its broken windows replaced with plywood panels instead of glass because the window frames are rotted out.
B.C.'s neighborhood schools often stand out as apparently derelict buildings in otherwise affluent surroundings. Many school buildings are not just eyesores, but also dangerous environments for staff (and students).
In 2004, the province identified 346 public schools as being at "high risk" of collapse during a seismic event. A province wide seismic upgrade policy was announced.
To date, 168 of those schools have had no seismic upgrade work done at all, and the projected timeline for completion of the project has been pushed back beyond the year 2030.
Poor salaries, a toxic employer/employee work environment and physically dangerous worksites. Why indeed would anyone choose to teach in the B.C. public education system?
Ron Manning
Prince George
