Certified teacher struggling to land full-time job in spite of shortage

As schools turn to university students and graduates without a teachers’ degree to cope with a shortage, a certified teacher from Dieppe says she’s been trying to find full-time work without success.

Dieppe resident Allie Fanjoy was hired as a supply teacher for the coming school year in late August, but she says the process was slow and frustrating.

More frustrating, she says, was learning that schools in the anglophone system are still short by 32 teachers — and three districts of the four are relying on 132 people on local permit contracts.

Local permit contracts enable school districts to hire people without teaching degrees, and some with no university degree at all. 

“If you have a shortage, and you’re crying for certified teachers, why are you not contacting the certified teachers who want to come back to the school system, instead of relying directly on local permits?” Fanjoy said in an interview.

“It’s been a very frustrating summer.”

Shortage prompts return to teaching

When Fanjoy graduated in 2002 with a bachelor of education degree and certifications to teach K-8 and high school English, she says the system wasn’t struggling to find teachers.

She spent nearly a decade working as a supply teacher — where hours were not guaranteed — before changing careers to truck driving. 

But decades later, the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association is warning of a potential crisis in the anglophone system, as it projects more than 1,000 teachers will retire in the next five years. 

Seeing comments from the NBTA and the province about the urgent need, Fanjoy said she applied im June to the Anglophone East School District’s general certified teachers pool, and in August she applied to individual job postings.

But she said she never heard anything back. 

When the province held a virtual job fair in August, Fanjoy decided to attend and was directed to contact the superintendent for her region. She was contacted the next day for a general interview but wasn’t offered a full-time teaching position. 

Districts say certified teachers are prioritized

Last week, NBTA president Peter Legacy cautioned the province against continuing to rely on local permit contracts to fill teaching jobs. 

“We think about hiring those without an education degree — I would hate to see that become the norm, an accepted practise in the province,” he said at a press conference. 

While local-permit teachers aren’t required to have a university degree, under provincial regulations the superintendent of the school district “must certify in writing that the applicant possesses adequate knowledge to fulfil the duties of the position,” said government spokesperson Erika Jutras.

CBC News requested the total number of people teaching without a completed university degree from the four anglophone districts. 

The Anglophone East School District declined to comment when reached on Friday. 

Spokesperson Paul MacIntosh said Anglophone West School District currently has 55 teachers hired on local permits. Of those, 36 have at least four years of post-secondary education and 19 do not. 

“We make every effort to hire certified teachers to fill every classroom,” he said in a statement. “The skills, knowledge and professionalism that they gain along their educational pathways are invaluable and always preferred and prioritized.”

The Anglophone South School District does not track how many of its local permit holders have a completed university degree, according to spokesperson Jessica Hanlon.

“While our preference is a university degree, applicants can apply to our supply list with at least two years of university,” Hanlon said by email.

“If hiring local permit teachers, we seek to hire those with a completed degree or those currently completing their teaching degree.”

The Anglophone North School District has 37 employees with local permits, said spokesperson Meredith Caissie. She did not specify how many have completed their degree. 

“Any local permit teachers in teaching roles are only in the position until a certified teacher can be found,” she said.

For now, Fanjoy plans to supply teach but says she has lost some faith in the system. 

“There is that level of frustration and that feeling of, ‘Why did I even bother to get an education if they’re not going to use qualified people?'” she said. “It makes me feel like qualifications are no longer important.”