B.C. starts another academic year facing overcrowded, understaffed schools

As students return to classrooms this week, teachers in British Columbia are apprehensive of the challenges in the year ahead with an ongoing staff shortage amid a rapid growth in student population.

With registrations still coming in, Sooke School District superintendent Scott Stinson says over 750 additional students are entering classrooms in the area — considerably more than the district's enrolment forecast of 650.

"It's getting a little more challenging because we've used all of the available space within our schools," said Stinson, adding that Sooke is one of the fastest growing school districts in the province.

He says the district — which has a K-12 enrolment of around 12,000 students across an area from Port Renfrew to the Victoria suburbs of Colwood and Langford — spent about $1.4 million this summer moving and purchasing new portables to relieve crowded classrooms.

At the same time, the president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF), Clint Johnston, says the provincewide staff shortage in education is affecting classrooms and the work of other teachers. 

Both Johnston and Stinson say more investment in education and school infrastructure is required. 

"What we invest in education has been declining for quite a while," said Johnston. 

"Education [is a public service] that returns multiple … in terms of savings on other social services and benefits to society." 

According to the Ministry of Education and Child Care, over 6,000 new students are expected to be enrolled in the K-12 B.C. public school system this September.

Growing student population

Population growth and increasing development in the Sooke School District area are causing the boom in student numbers, with this year's estimated number of new students not far off the 2021 record of more than 800, Stinson says. 

"Our district continues to grow year over year and we typically see anywhere from three to six per cent growth," he said, adding the challenges are compounded for smaller school districts, which have less space and fewer resources. 

Alongside a rise in B.C.'s overall population, municipalities in southern Vancouver Island like Langford, Colwood and Sooke have noticed an increase in family relocations, he said. 

While the Sooke school district does long-range facilities planning every year to ensure adequate staffing and classroom space for students, Stinson notes the rapid growth can be unpredictable — especially when registration numbers aren't finalized until the end of September. 

There's an increasing reliance on portables to accommodate the growing numbers of students, with Stinson saying the district plans to purchase more next year. 

Annually, school districts submit a capital plan to the Ministry of Education to request expansion projects, new school buildings, seismic upgrades and other resources, says Stinson. 

But while the ministry provides support for those projects, districts are responsible for funding the costs for buying and moving portables. 

'System-wide shortage' of staff

As well as more space, schools are in desperate need of teachers, especially educational assistants, principals and vice-principals, according to the BCTF. 

In an annual survey by the union, 80 per cent of B.C. teachers said they were unable to effectively support students due to teacher shortages during the previous school year, Johnston says. 

"It's certainly a system-wide shortage of all the staff that are needed to run a good system," he said, adding the BCTF has been calling on the ministry and school districts to gather data on the shortage to understand the depth of the issue. 

Johnston says another area lacking data is the number of uncertified teachers that have been brought in to support classrooms. 

"When you're asking to hire uncertified teachers there publicly, I think that's an indicator of how bad the problem is. So we have no numbers at all on how many teachers we are lacking."

Johnston notes while the province opened up additional teacher training spots in B.C., several of those either weren't filled or had teachers leave the province again due to cost-of-living and housing struggles. 

"We anecdotally know of members who've gotten the job, gone to the district, tried to work and could not maintain housing and had to leave," he said. 

"They're big issues, but they built for years. So they're going to require some big political will to solve them."

At a news conference Tuesday, Minister of Education Rachna Singh said the government is aware of the growing student population and is actively working to support school districts amid staffing shortages. 

"Many school districts are facing enrolment pressure, including Surrey, Sooke, Langley ... [We are] coming up with new ideas, like urban schools [and] how we can reduce the timelines to build the schools or expand the schools."

In regards to data on teacher shortages and uncertified teachers, Singh says school districts will have a better sense of those numbers.

"Every school district is welcoming students ... every classroom that [a] child goes to will have a teacher," she said, adding the ministry has opened 250 more teacher training spots and is looking to hire teachers with foreign credentials. 

At the opening of the Coast Salish Elementary school in Coquitlam, B.C., on Monday, Premier David Eby acknowledged more schools need to be built and more teachers are needed to staff those schools. 

"There's challenges across many areas of hiring in British Columbia to find the people we need, because we're growing so quickly. Teaching is no exception and we're looking for high-quality teachers from across Canada and around the world," he said.