TDSB still struggling to fill online teacher positions for English and French classes

The Toronto District School Board says it is still struggling to fill all its teacher openings more than a week after virtual learning began for the city’s elementary students.

Back on September 29, the TDSB said it had hired all of its English teachers and it expected them to connect with students by the end of this week following two days of training.

“Earlier this week, we were optimistic that all classes would be assigned a teacher by today and that has not happened,” the TDSB said in an update posted to its website Friday.

The board says while more than 94 per cent of its Elementary Virtual School students are receiving teacher instruction, it acknowledged that a number of factors have made filling the remaining openings “incredibly challenging.”

“All English classrooms had been assigned a teacher. Unfortunately, a small number of classrooms are once again without a teacher in place due to resignations. In these cases, we are working to replace the teacher,” the board said.

The TDSB says it is reviewing every class list and teacher assignment to ensure that every outstanding student has been placed in the appropriate class for the upcoming week which may include increasing class sizes in order to accommodate more students.

For elementary students, the TDSB had set maximum class sizes at 20 for Grades 1 to 3 and 35 for Grades 4 to 8.

The TDSB also said that due to a shortage of French language teachers, a number of French Immersion and Extended French classes remain without an instructor.

“We have taken immediate action to ensure that students have a connection with a teacher and classmates by offering placements to English-speaking Occasional Teachers for the 80+ remaining vacancies until we can confirm a French teacher,” said the board which added it is looking at recruiting out-of-province French teachers as a longer term solution.

More than 60,000 elementary students within the TDSB are learning online this year and the board has had trouble keeping up with staffing. Multiple school boards in the GTA are having similar problems as more and more students choose virtual over in-person classes.

Approximately 7,500 elementary students have opted to move from in-person to virtual school as the first opportunity to do so became available this week, according to the TDSB. At the same time another 3,000 students have opted to go from virtual to in-person learning. Those changes will take effect October 13, the day after Thanksgiving.

The next opportunity for students to make a change won’t come until November 6.