SD73 expects to start school year with full complement of French Immersion teachers

Aug 23, 2018 | 4:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — An apparent shortage of French immersion teachers in many areas of the province isn’t as much of a concern in the Kamloops/Thompson School District.

Shayne Olsen, associate superintendent of human resources with the Kamloops/Thompson School District, expects a full complement of French immersion teachers when classes start in less than two weeks.

“We are fortunate that Kamloops is a desirable place to live,” he told CFJC Today. “And so at this particular point we’re confident we’ll have a qualified French teacher in each one of our classes.”

But when it comes to French immersion teachers teaching on call (TTOC), he’s not as convinced.

“We definitely have some French-speaking TTOC’s, and for the most part we’re able to replace the teachers with a qualified teacher. But to be honest there are days throughout the year when the demand is greater for whatever reason and so we do have to put English-speaking teachers into those classrooms.”

Glyn Lewis, executive director of Canadian Parents for French (B.C./Yukon), says there “is a critical shortage of French immersion teachers in almost every community in the province right now,” something he partly blames on a lack of planning in years past by senior levels of government and post-secondary institutions.

“Post-secondary institutions and governments were asleep at the switch. We warned them four years ago, we told them.”

And though the situation has improved following financial commitments made the past eight months by the federal government and the province, he says those benefits won’t be seen until the “medium to long term,” not the short term.

In the short term, he says the province will need to recruit out-of-province and even out-of-country to fill the gap.

Lewis says the French immersion teacher shortage is also the result of the popularity of French immersion itself.

In fact, he says the number of French immersion students has increased each year for the past two decades noting there are now 55,000 French students in B.C. — roughly 10 per cent of the student population.