Quesnel School District says use of non-certified teachers is on the decline

The Quesnel School District is still relaying on non-certified teachers in the classroom but they are trending in the right direction.

That from School District Superintendent Dan Lowndes.

“We do currently have 12 non-certified teachers working in classrooms in our District, which is actually trending down, contrary to what some may believe. Last year we had 19 in our school district, the year prior to that we had 16 and the year before that we had 15.”

Lowndes says competition for certified teachers is fierce.

“We’ve been very creative, both locally in our school district, but also working in partnership with other northern districts, working as a cohort really to try and encourage certified teachers to move to the north.”

Lowndes says non-certified teachers have to meet certain requirements.

“Of course we’d like to be hiring all certified teachers, but that being said we do maintain a requirement for hiring of non-certified teachers where they have to hold a bachelors degree, and they have to engage with orientation within our district in order to be able to hold positions here. We do need teachers in front of students.”

The District has hired 6 certified teachers and 6 non-certified teachers since July.

Lowndes says they are happy but not satisfied with those numbers.

The District has also hired 12 certified and 4 non-certified education assistants during that same time frame.

Lowndes says hiring for those positions has also been a challenge over the last few years.

However, he says they have been able to hire people with similar credentials.

“There are a number of non-certified education assistants, meaning they could have done their training as a youth care worker for example or similar, or they have a community care certificate, so they have very similar qualifications but they did not complete the certificate, so that would be considered as someone who is a non-certified education assistant.”

Lowndes says they are working with post secondary around dual credit options to encourage grade 12 students to start their post secondary early in education assistant.