‘It stated a lot of what we already know’; Kamloops-Thompson teachers overwhelmed

“We know that even before the pandemic there were pressures on teachers,” Martin explained.

“So we certainly weren’t surprised to see teachers stressed, especially coming back after the pandemic ‘

While the survey reports more than 80 per cent of teachers directly being impacted by staffing shortages in their district, Nixon said SD73 is fully staffed, 98 to 100 per cent of the time.

According to Nixon, locally, staff shortages have primarily been affecting rural areas in the Kamloops Thompson, and they are working to address that.

“One of the strategies we’ve employed is to have additional TTOCs or teachers teaching on call in our rural locations,” Nixon said.

“Those are the locations we saw a pattern, where those teachers were having to cover more often.”

Aside from a larger work caused by understaffing, Martin sees an increase in student needs following online classes and isolation during early learning.

“When children didn’t have opportunities for preschool in the same way of daycare, and just limited social interaction, playgroups, all that early learning piece,” said Martin “We knew that there would be some implications to learning that way and that’s what we are seeing.”

“Needing to address those needs, puts extra stress on teachers and all workers in the system.”

According to the survey, 62 per cent of respondents felt they couldn’t give students what they need.

Martin said the KTTA works closely with the school board and believes it may be a government issue to solve.

“We do need a provincial examination of recruitment and retention,” she said.

“And looking at how we improve class size for all teachers across the province, providing resources to teachers because some of the work that teachers have to do is finding and preparing the resources they use with their students, that’s a key piece.”

by Sydney Chisholm

‘It stated a lot of what we already know’; Kamloops-Thompson teachers overwhelmed

Our Community