Teacher vacancies bring added stress to return to classroom, N.L. association says
Teachers and students are preparing to return to the classroom next week, but there are still dozens of permanent teaching positions yet to be filled, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association. (Shutterstock)
Just over a week away from a new school year, the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association says a number of teacher vacancies will make things stressful for members headed back to the classroom.
NLTA president Trent Langdon said there are over 200 positions that remain unfilled, including 31 permanent positions listed on NLSchool's job board.
Of those 31 positions, 19 are located in Labrador.
"They're unsure how their complement of teachers is going to look at the start of the school year, and we're only a week away," Langdon told CBC News Wednesday.
"It's been a problem for quite some time in this province, but particularly in rural and isolated areas to fill those positions."
He's hopeful positions can be filled, but knows there will be challenges.
"I would not be surprised if some don't get filled again this year," he said.
"Those types of things really do create a great deal of stress for our members…. As much as going back to school is a fun time and should be an exciting time for students and teachers, teachers know full well that those stresses will present themselves pretty quickly."
NLTA president Trent Langdon said he'd like to see more creative recruitment and retention efforts to attract and keep teachers in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. (Darryl Murphy/CBC)
Langdon said officials are trying to fill those positions through recruitment and retention incentives. They've worked to some degree, he said, but added there are barriers in rural communities like available housing, travel costs and the high cost of living.
He'd like to see recruitment move in a more creative direction — especially in rural areas.
"A true fix for the rural and isolated areas of the entire province … is if we work with families and students in those areas to recruit and build teachers. I can't think of [anything] better than if you had a young person on the north coast who had dreams and hopes of becoming a teacher, say, in junior high, [that] government work with that young person," he said.
"Get them through their training with the full intent that they would stay in their community, then you got a teacher there for 30 years of their career. So what better way, and what better person to be teaching in those communities than someone who has lived there. That way you get a much better chance of retaining."
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