Student teachers are reporting months-long waits to obtain temporary permission to take on supply work, as Ontario schools continue to struggle to cover absences during COVID-19.
With the end of the school year just two months away — and with May and June sports, field trips, graduation ceremonies and other events adding pressure — students and their professors are wondering why there’s such a delay by the Ontario College of Teachers.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced earlier this year that student teachers in either their first or second year are now allowed to take on supply work. He is also urging the college to get moving.
“Our government will continue to work with the Ontario College of Teachers and school boards to increase the supply of teachers across the province and ensure our students have the qualified, certified educators they need, supported by a $300-million investment to hire more educators and front-line staff,” said Grace Lee, Lecce’s spokesperson.
“We expect the Ontario College of Teachers will urgently address this matter, as they are responsible for all matters relating to qualification and certification in Ontario.”
The college, which is the profession’s regulatory body, was first contacted by the Star on Wednesday, and a spokesperson said Thursday and again Friday that no one was available to comment.
Instead, senior communications officer Olivia Yu said via email there is no hold up and that the college “must make best efforts to render a certification decision within 120 days.
“There are no delays regarding the issue of temporary certifications,” she said. “In fact, applications for a temporary certificate are already being expedited and are being issued as quickly as possible. Additionally, to address teacher shortage needs, the college has been working closely with school boards to process applications for those who have received a job offer.”
Yu said the college has made the temporary certification process “more efficient by automating documentation process versus a manual process and by prioritizing the evaluation of completed applications.”
She said delays can occur if applicants don’t provide all of the necessary documentation of fees, but that “the majority of temporary certificates are issued well below” the 120-day timeline.
However, a number of students and their professors have told the Star they are ready and willing to work, but can’t.
Marguerite Campbell, who teaches in the faculties of education at the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University, said she began hearing from her students awhile ago about how they had applied for temporary certificates but had yet to hear back.
Then, after a meeting a couple of weeks ago with her students, “we went around the table, and there were 12 of them, and none of them had their certificates … and the stories were, ‘I was calling and was on hold for an hour and 48 minutes,’ or ‘I was told I can’t call until 30 days after I have applied.’ And I thought this is crazy, because of the need for occasional teachers. Every time I go into a school, they’re missing supply teachers or principals are in classrooms,” said Campbell, who was formerly a long-serving principal with the Toronto District School Board.
“I just thought this is madness — and it was just how dismissive they were of the students. And this is a time-sensitive issue.”
Given the need, the process should be expedited and streamlined, she added.
Farah Zahreddine, a second-year master’s student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said she applied Feb. 22, and supplied all of the required documents by March 25.
She said she has called many times and only recently was able to connect with a live person, who could not provide her with any information or confirmation.
“It’s frustrating, because you know that schools are in need of occasional teachers,” said Zahreddine, who wants to be a biology and chemistry high school teacher in Toronto.
“So the work is there — you just can’t do it.”
Gabrielle Barkany, a senior communications officer with the college, said via email it “has been experiencing higher-than-normal volumes” of applications, and that it is “responding to all inquiries as quickly as possible in the order that they are received. ”
An online portal is available around the clock to check application status, she added.
School boards have been left scrambling to fill absences, given COVID-19 rates and isolation requirements that force teachers out of classrooms for long stretches.
Central staff have been called on to help out; librarians, principals or vice-principals sometimes fill in; and retired teachers are now permitted to come back for more days than they have been allowed in the past.
Some schools have had to cancel classes and move them online because of the staffing shortages.
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