A new task force is looking at how to keep the province’s classrooms fully staffed following a Supreme Court ruling that brings class sizes back to 2002 levels.
“This is a good problem to be having – we are trying to add new classroom resources in every corner of the province,” said Education Minister Rob Fleming.
READ MORE: The B.C. Teachers Union is concerned the teacher shortage is affecting special needs students
He said while some districts say they’ve had a smooth start to the school year, others struggle to have specialty teachers and enough on-call teachers available.
“Some of these problems are persistent and some have been really stretched by what has been the largest hiring of new teachers in generations.”
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He said the panel of experts is looking at immediate and long-term solutions.
“We’re looking at immediate things we can do to fill in some of the substitute teacher gaps, for example, in different districts, but also to have a longer-term strategy on training more teachers.”
He said the task force will deal with pressing issues as they come up, but will have a list of final recommendations by the end of the year.
Fleming said the province is hiring 3,500 new positions for this school year.
– With files from Emily Lazatin
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