In others, students had to be transferred to other classes just to be under the supervision of an adult all day. These are some of the situations that have arisen in recent weeks as a result of the high percentage of teachers calling ill, says Connie Keating, president of the New Brunswick Teachers Association. These are situations that he says should cause parents concern about the quality of their children’s education. Keating says the teachers are tense and tired. (Zoom interview)
“There is still a real concern that we will not be able to keep schools safe with enough teachers if people continue to be sick and out of school,” Keating said. “I know for a fact that we continue to worry about the state of education here in New Brunswick when principals do not have the authority to close their classrooms or schools for the day and have no choice but to bring large groups of students to the gym. classes, send students to other classes to be supervised by other adults for the day. “Moreover, when schools are open under these restrictions, this is not education and quality learning does not happen.” Data provided last month by two of the province’s English-speaking school districts showed a significant increase in the percentage of teachers calling ill a week after schools reopened after the March break. This period, from 21 to 25 March, also marked an entire week after the lifting of all protection measures for COVID-19 on 14 March. The abolition of all protection measures, especially the mandatory mask, was met with opposition from some parents, along with a group of pediatricians who wrote to the province calling for the measure to be reintroduced in schools to limit the transmission of COVID-19. CBC News asked the four English-speaking school districts in the province for the latest evidence of teacher absenteeism. In an email, Jennifer Redd, a spokeswoman for the West English-speaking School District, said there were 967 illness absences that required a substitute teacher for the week of April 4 to 8. “The district and the schools are working tirelessly to reduce staff vacancies,” Read said. “As we previously shared with you, we have had an emergency plan in place since the new year. We currently have 84 supply teachers and 70 occasional teaching assistants (EAs) assigned to schools by Wednesday, April 13. These placements is in addition to the traditional way of securing teachers’ supplies with the absence management system “. Stephanie Patterson, a spokeswoman for the Anglophone School District East, did not provide evidence of teacher absenteeism, but said in an email that there are some schools facing staffing challenges due to illness, including teachers, tutors and guardians. “No classroom is left unattended during class hours,” Patterson said. “Our schools have tricked school and staffing programs to ensure that an adult (with teaching experience) oversees the classrooms,” he said, adding that the district conducts interviews almost daily as it recruits extra casual and supply staff. The Ministry of Education, meanwhile, provided CBC News with statistics on teaching staff vacancies in the four English-speaking and three French-speaking regions for the week of March 28 to April 1. The English-speaking East School District had the highest number of vacancies for the week, with 462 absentees among teachers and 442 absentees among teaching assistants.

Vacancies in teaching staff

  District Teachers Assistants Education English-speaking West 108 122 English-speaking East 462 441 English-speaking North 140 76 English-speaking South 151 319 French-speaking Northeast 173 89 French-speaking Northwest 98 41 French-speaking South 47 24

Representative Danielle Elliott said at the high school level, these vacancies are calculated per class, not per day. “While an absence may be referred to as ‘unfulfilled’, this does not necessarily mean that a course has been canceled or sent home – often schools and districts can redeploy staff locally to fill vacancies,” he said. “For example, if teachers are not available, a district leader or an in-school teacher could volunteer for the day or during a free period. “Classroom teachers also have priority for replacements, so positions such as mentoring or resource teachers may be temporarily left vacant to ensure that students can continue learning in the classroom.”

Burnout, unfulfilled responsibilities

Keating said the use of mentoring and resource teachers is essential when teachers are not available. But it also means that some students go without the necessary support. “So when they can not fulfill their responsibilities for which they have been hired, then these children are left without services,” he said. As part of shifting responsibilities to make up for absences, Keating said teachers are also in need of teaching their own lessons, preparing for those lessons and making up for their colleagues’ absences. “Now, at this point in the year, we hear that school principals are hearing from their teachers that they just can no longer cover. They are burning, they are exhausted. “And what we’re seeing now is that there are more students who, you know, are coming together in gyms and cafes. [to be] supervised. “But this is not quality education.”