Ailing teachers force some schools to 'corral' students in gyms, cafs

Classes in some New Brunswick schools have needed to be combined, with students having to be "corralled" into gyms and cafeterias.

In others, students have had to be moved to other classrooms just so they can be under the supervision of an adult for the day.

Those are some of the situations that have arisen in recent weeks as a result of a high rate of teachers calling in sick, says Connie Keating, president of the New Brunswick Teachers Association.

They're situations that she says should be cause for concern among parents about the quality of their children's education.

"There continues to be a real worry that we won't be able to safely keep schools staffed with enough teachers if people continue to be out ill and absent from school," said Keating.

"I know certainly we continue to worry about the state of education here in New Brunswick when principals don't have the authority to close classes or their schools for the day, and are left with no other choice than to gather large groups of students into gymnasiums, split up classes, send students to other classrooms so that they're supervised by other adults for the day.

"And furthermore, when schools are open under these constraints, this is not education, and quality learning isn't happening."

Data provided last month by two of the province's anglophone school districts showed a significant increase in the rate of teachers calling in sick a week after schools reopened after March break. That period, from March 21 to 25 also marked a full week after all COVID-19 protections were dropped on March 14.

The dropping of all protections, particularly mandatory masking, has been met with opposition from some parents, along with a group of pediatric doctors who wrote to the province asking that the measure be reintroduced in schools to limit the transmission of COVID-19.

CBC News has asked the province's four anglophone school districts for more recent teacher absence data.

In an email, Anglophone School District West spokesperson Jennifer Read said there were 967 sickness-related absences requiring a substitute teacher for the week of April 4 to 8.

"The district and schools have been working tirelessly to mitigate staff vacancies," Read said.

"As previously shared with you, we've had a contingency plan in place since the new year. Currently, we have 84 supply teachers and 70 casual educational assistants (EAs) assigned to schools until Wednesday, April 13. These placements are in addition to the traditional manner of securing supply teachers with our absence management system."

Stephanie Patterson, a spokesperson for Anglophone School District East, did not provide teacher absence data, but in an email said there are a few schools that are facing staffing challenges because of illness, including among teachers, education assistants and custodians.

"No classes are left unsupervised during class times," Patterson said.

"Our schools have juggled school and staff schedules to ensure an adult (with teaching experience) is supervising classes," she said, adding the district is doing conducting interviews almost daily as it works on hiring additional casual and supply staff.

The Department of Education, meanwhile, provided CBC News with statistics on unfilled education staff positions across the four anglophone and three francophone districts for the week of March 28 to April 1.

Anglophone School District East had the highest number of unfilled positions for that week, with 462 absences among teachers, and 442 among education assistants.

Spokesperson Danielle Elliott said at the high school level, those vacancies are calculated by class, not by day.

"While an absence might be listed as 'unfilled' this does not necessarily mean that a class was cancelled or sent home – often schools and districts are able to redeploy staff locally to cover any unfilled vacancies," she said.

"As an example, should no supply teachers be available, a district lead or teacher within the school could volunteer for the day or during a free period.

"Classroom teachers are also prioritized for replacements, so positions such as guidance counsellors or resource teachers may go temporarily unfilled to ensure that students are able to continue in-class learning."

Burnout, unfulfilled responsibilities

Keating said the use of guidance counsellors and resource teachers is necessary when there are no available supply teachers.

But that also means some students are going without needed supports.

"So when they cannot fulfil their responsibilities that they've been hired to do, then those children are going without services," she said. 

As part of the shuffling of responsibilities to make up for absences, Keating said teachers are also finding themselves stretched out across the need to teach their own classes, prepare for those classes, and cover for the absences of their colleagues.

"Now, at this point in the year, we're hearing that school principals are hearing from their teachers that they just can't cover anymore. They're burning out, they're exhausted.

"And so that's now what we're seeing is that there are more students being, you know, corralled into gymnasiums and cafeterias [to be] supervised. But this isn't quality education."