Educational leaves of three months to a year are given to teachers in New Brunswick each year.
Sixty-seven of them have been granted leave for the upcoming school year in 2019-2020.
President of the New Brunswick Teachers Association George Daley says 46 of them are members of the NBTA, “Every teacher who has some desire to look for a period of time off to take some deep advancement in the certification level or their training level, they have the opportunity to apply to the program.”
The remaining 21 are members of the Francophone Teachers Association.
A number of factors are considered when the teachers are chosen,”If you look within the province, we have real crunches for second language teachers, guidance counsellors, resource positions, and things like that. So when you have those individuals apply, you would probably have them a ranked a little higher in the selection process,” Daley says.
Other factors include how many times a teacher has applied, and how long their upgrades will take.
During their leave, teachers may pursue further specialization in things like resource, literacy or math or guidance.
With the current shortage of teachers, Daley says, “We have a shortage across the province, more predominantly in the outside areas of the three big cities. These leaves are well in advance so that gives them an opportunity to fill them ahead of time. There’s no question that there will be a group of teachers who won’t be eligible to go in and supply teach, however it is something that has been going on for a long period of time in the province, so it is just part of the natural way of doing business.”
Daley admits the number of teachers applying to take leave, has been down recently,”The idea of stepping out and trying to take something else on, even though it is educational leave, I just don’t think everyone is there. Our teachers are struggling with a pretty difficult classroom learning environment. So when you get a tired workforce, that translates into less people applying for leave.”
He says they have violence in the classroom that needs to be dealt with, some from students who are special needs, and others who are not.
He believes there need to be changes to the inclusion policies.
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