It’s another school year – once again opening with educational staff shortages, according to Ted Hupé, the head of the territorial teachers’ union.
Hupé, the president of the Yukon Association of Education Professionals (YAEP), spoke to The Yukon Star on Wednesday about how the new school year, which will launch next week for most students, is shaping up.
The conversation was eerily similar to the last two years, with staff shortages threatening to cause challenges to the education system. Five hundred more students are expected to attend classes than had been expected.
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” Hupé said. “There are 50 positions on the job boards. It’s going to force schools to shift people around.”
Hupé said the situation is part of what’s become a “world-wide shortage of teachers and other educational professionals.”
He figures he’s familiar with how there could be as many as 44 million teachers needed for the global job market. Most of those are in Africa and Asia, but Canada and the North aren’t immune.
“People don’t need to come up here anymore (from the South), Hupé said. “It’s all about the economy.”
Hupé suggested that pay scales in the South have caught up with the territories, the Yukon in particular. That’s always been the primary factor luring people to the North to teach, he said. Along with that, the allure of visiting or living in the North just isn’t there anymore for many people.
“Jobs here just don’t have that same allure,” Hupé said. “There are enough jobs down south.”
He also said the lustre has gone out of an education career for many people. Once seen to be in a respected profession, teachers are now considered political malcontents by many “right-wing governments and politicians,” he suggested.
More and more people are capping their education careers at approximately the five-year mark and changing jobs, he added, rather than spending a lifetime at it.
His solution is simple: “Incentives work.”
He pointed to the Northwest Territories, which offers three times the amount of community bonuses to education professionals as the Yukon does.
“Coming here (to the Yukon) isn’t attractive to a lot of young people anymore,” Hupé said. “The ‘magic and the mystery’ doesn’t cut it anymore,” he said, referring to a Yukon tourism slogan.
The territory needs to pay competitive rates and benefits, he added, or it won’t be successful in its recruitment efforts.
Hupé also said the Yukon government had put a hiring freeze in place in the last week or two – something officials vehemently say is incorrect.
“While there was never a hiring freeze, there is ongoing collective bargaining with YAEP,” spokesperson Clarissa Wall advised the Star.“ Therefore, it would not be appropriate for YG to respond to the other issues that Ted Hupé raised in the media.
“This year, the Yukon education authority is excited to note that there are approximately 500 more students this year than was expected. Therefore, as part of regular operational work to forecast enrolment and staffing allocations, the Department of Education held back issuing official offer letters for less than 48 hours. This was to ensure a fair staff-to-student ratio,” Wall said.
“After completing the staffing review, the Department of Education notes that there has been an increase in teacher allocations overall, and comparing this year to this time last year, 42 per cent more teachers on call have accepted offers.”
