Province's teachers work in overcrowded classrooms, face verbal, physical abuse: survey

The New Brunswick Teachers' Association is calling on the provincial government to address serious issuesit says teachers are facing in the school system.

The call comes as the association releases survey results showing a picture of teachers' experiences over a two-week period in mid-October.

Peter Lagacy, the president of the association, saidthe survey results are"deeply concerning."

"Now more than ever before, teachers are facing unfair criticism and slander on social media that has been fuelled by comments from elected officials who know better.

"These issues are urgent, they are unacceptable and they are compounding," said Lagacy, during a news conference Tuesday morning.

He said children are spending their days in understaffed classrooms and overcrowded buildings, with uncertified community members, people without a bachelor of education, sometimes taking the place of actual teachers because of shortages.

All of this means teachers are being "stretched thin," Lagacy said.

CBC News requested an interview with the Department of Education, but received an emailed statement instead.

In the statement, Education Minister Bill Hogan said the department has been implementing "near-term recommendations" put forward by an executive steering committee, which he said isco-chaired by the teachers' association.

He said in response to the report from the steering committee, the department launched N.B. Lead to provide more professional development opportunities for school leaders, addmorestaff, includingbehaviour intervention mentors, and contract moresupply teachers.

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Hogan said along with these recommendations, the steering committee is also finalizing a report on longer-term recommendations to be shared with the government.

"It is important to remember that these actions will take time to complete. The challenges in our anglophone school system did not arise overnight it will take time to solve them," the statement said.

'Disheartening'

The survey was sent to 6,400 members of the association and in the 36 hours it was open, 2,916 members responded, but not all respondents answered every question.

The responses were based on the two weeks leading up to the survey. In that period, he said nearly half of respondents reported experiencing physical or verbal violence.

He said seven out of 10 found that completing their duties wascompromised because of issues such asovercrowding and poor ventilation.

Lagacy said 83 per cent of respondents reported helping a student find food or clothing at least once. He called this "disheartening."

"I think you can see from the survey results that the issues in our classrooms right now are real.

Lagacy said the teachers' association is asking for the province for two things: a recruitment and retention strategy and increased funding.

He couldn't quantify how much funding would be needed to solve the problems.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt attended the announcement and said what the association revealed reflects what her own kids experience every day.

"They go into schools where they have classmates who are hungry," she said.

"We see that there are really challenging situations in schools that our teachers are facing, and we have to listen to them and give them the resources they need so that our students can have the world-class education they deserve."

Holt said teachers have suffered constant disrespectover the last few years and the first step for the provincial government is to listen.

Green MLA Kevin Arseneau said the situation in schools is "dire."

He said he's heard from teachers who are experiencing verbal abuse from people in the communityand parents who "seem to think that the school system has been taken away from them."

"While the government tries to use this kind of language parents rights and all of that, they're actually trying to take away the school system from the parents. It already belongs to the parents in the sense where we have elected parents that are on education councils, that are working through curriculum," he said.

"So leave it. Leave it to the parents instead of trying to take it away."