An open letter signed by hundreds of teachers and support staff says that the province’s education system faces “imminent collapse” and that they are begging the province for help.
The letter, released on Monday at 10 a.m., says the province needs to provide immediate funding or watch the system fall apart.
“We have tried our best over the last two months of school reopening, but the shortcomings in our system due to lack of provincial policy and funding has taken its toll on the health and wellbeing of our educators, school leaders, support staff, and students,” reads the letter.
“In August, $85.4 million in federal taxpayer money was provided to Manitoba, yet the province has not made it explicitly clear where and how these funds would be dispersed — and staff certainly haven’t seen the impact in our classrooms.”
The letter states that teachers are bouncing between two or three schools daily, that principals are doing contact tracing, and that the policy for music and education classes is inconsistent.
The Manitoba Teachers’ Society added its voice to the list of concerns, echoing the call for federal money to be used.
“The majority of provinces have used this federal money to ensure that students and teachers are being given the necessary resources and supports,” said MTS president James Bedford.
“The inaction of the Manitoba government has led to a situation where students’ learning conditions and teachers’ working conditions are deteriorating at an alarming rate.”
The Society has asked the province for a plan for the federal funds, but has not received a clear response, Bedford said.
“Their vague and non-committal responses are, quite frankly, unacceptable, and their silence is negligent,” he said.
“Teachers are looking to the province to invest in education, and once again their cry is falling on deaf ears.”
Provincial Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced Monday they will be establishing a “remote learning support centre” at a cost of $10 million.
Some of that money will be used to hire more than 100 teachers and 20 educational assistants to help put together the unit, said Goertzen.
“This support … will help teachers that are delivering education remotely,” said Goertzen.
The centre will work like a help line, and will also develop resources to help teachers facilitate home learning, said Goertzen.
The province will also add three more professional development days to the school calendar, two of which will be before the Christmas break, as decided by individual divisions.
Those three additional days should be used for coming up with strategies to help with remote learning, he added.
The centre will be operational before the end of the month.
Burnout
Teacher burnout is already putting a strain on classrooms.
On Friday, Winnipeg School Division called in all 1,200 people on their substitute teachers list, said Radean Carter, spokesperson for the division.
There are about 2,400 teachers.
“We’re well below our 100 per cent fill rate,” she said. “All of our subs were called in today … we’ve been calling in all of our subs for, a couple of weeks, anyway.”
“We keep hearing, ‘hire more, hire more, we would love to hire more,'” Carter added. “Our doors are open to hiring,” but the skills are hard to find.
Earlier that day, Seven Oaks School Division asked its high schools to cover teacher absences internally rather than using substitutes.
“Absenteeism is higher, but we’ve actually encouraged it,” said Superintendent Brian O’Leary. “We’ve encouraged people to stay home if they’re symptomatic.”
Substitute teachers are being allocated to kindergarten-to-Grade 8 schools, he added.
On the weekend, St. James Assiniboia School Division sent a letter to parents saying children in Grades 7 and 8 would be moving toward some remote learning.
“In an abundance of caution, the students in Grades 7 and 8 at all SJASD Middle Schools will begin alternate day, in-class attendance on Nov. 16, 2020.”
The new system will be in place for SJASD students until at least Dec. 18, said the division, noting that classes like band and choir will be suspended indefinitely.
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