B.C. teachers renew call to candidates to address staffing issues

Ahead of the provincial election, B.C. teachers are speaking out, saying the parties still haven’t promised solutions to certain key issues for teachers.

Speaking to the media Friday, BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) president Clint Johnston says he was happy to see the BC NDP’s platform includes installing counsellors at every school, along with education assistants.

“It’s a really amazing commitment that’s going to support students in their development and their safety,” said Johnston, adding that the federation remains concerned about staffing above all.

“[We want] a really concrete commitment and resolution to the shortage — the teacher shortage — and other workers in K through 12 as well,” said Johnston.

He says the federation doesn’t endorse any single candidate or party but wants them all to hear B.C. teachers’ need for support.

In early September, the BCTF outlined its concerns ahead of securing a new contract with the next provincial government.

Negotiations aren’t slated to begin until the spring, but the federation explained preparations were already underway.

Johnston didn’t provide an overall number, but he says staffing is so thin across the board — for both regular teachers and specialist educators — that it can be challenging for teachers to get a day off.

“Compensation isn’t what it should be. Certainly, we get decent pay, and lots of the public looking at us think our pay looks not too bad, but you do a lot of education to get here, and the cost of living is going up everywhere. We have teachers who can’t afford to live in the communities they teach in,” he explained in September.

“But it’s more than that. We’re not producing enough teachers here. We need to train more teachers, but overall, you need working conditions; you need a job that people look at and say, ‘I want to do that for 30 years,’ and right now that’s not the case.”

They’re hoping for improved recruiting and retaining of teachers in B.C.

“When we’re talking about allocating resources, we need more available and better teacher training programs around the province. We need to make sure that salaries allow educators to live in the communities they work in comfortably. So there’s a lot of pieces. That’s really the big one, and it comes down to we need each child to be able to develop relationships with a consistent, solid educator who’s well trained and supported,” Johnston said Friday.

He says the federation is also concerned with the BC Conservatives’ promise to end the use of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI 123) programming in B.C. schools.

“We have a very clear position,” said Johnston. “SOGI resources that have come into schools are a really good thing. They’ve helped make communities safer for the students in those schools.”

He says the removal of SOGI resources would lead to a “very literal physical and mental health risk.”

—With files from Sonia Aslam