By TOM PARKIN
February 5th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Many school principals say lack of available teachers is a daily problem and many have had to tell a special needs student they can’t come to school.
In 2024, 46 percent of Ontario elementary school principals and 39 percent of secondary school principals had a shortage of teachers every week, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 Ontario school principals.
And it’s a daily problem at 24 percent of elementary schools and 35 percent of secondary schools, principals say.
Ontario universities are graduating about half the number of teachers as a decade ago, and the low number of available teachers is making it hard to ensure classrooms are staffed, principals report.
Teachers not available when principals needs to fill gaps
Starting in September 2015 the Ontario Liberal government expanded the teacher training program to two years from one year and cut admissions by half.
Between 2008 and 2011, before the change, there were 9,100 newly licensed teachers in an average year, according to the Transitions to Teaching report from the Ontario College of Teachers. That’s dropped to just 4,671 on average between 2019 and 2022.
The result has been a teacher shortage. In 2014, 34 percent of newly-licenced teachers were not full-time employed as a teacher in their first year. That number has dropped to just four percent in 2022, leaving principals in many areas unable to find teachers and fill gaps.
The annual report of principals shows that 42 percent of elementary principals and 46 percent of secondary school principals had a shortage of educational assistants every day.
Principals telling special needs students to not come to school
In 2018, 58 percent of elementary principals and 48 percent of secondary school principals had to tell special needs students to not come to school for the day. In 2024 it was 63 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
In 54 percent of cases, the principal told the special needs student to not come to school because necessary support was not available.
In Ontario, 16 percent of elementary and 28 percent of secondary students are supposed to receive some form of special education support, a proportion that has remained relatively steady over the last decade
Majority of schools in northern Ontario have no access to a school psychologist
In 2017, principals reported that 13 percent of elementary schools and 16 percent of secondary schools had no access to a school psychologist, either in-school or on-call. In 2024, that number has increased to 24 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
And the problem of no access to school psychologists is heavily geographically weighted.
Principals reported that only seven percent of schools in the Greater Toronto Area didn’t have access to a school psychologist. But there was no access for 20 percent of schools in southwest Ontario, 30 percent in eastern, 36 percent in central, and 59 percent in northern Ontario schools.
For what it’s worth, my 2 cents – it’s time that Ontario made major structural changes to its educational system in order to better focus on its students and increase available resources. The first step is to dissolve the Separate School Board and create a single, secular system. The rationale for a Catholic School Board has long since been exhausted as has the wisdom of religious teachings within schools. We must maximize our educational infrastructure (schools, supplies, teachers, teachers aides etc.), avoid unnecessary duplication and redundancy, reduce administration and embrace curriculum reform. A critical first step is a provincial government that has the courage to proceed with reform and teachers’ unions that will align and support the reformation.
Editor’s note: Good luck to all that – a magic wand appears to be what you are looking for.
Well thank goodness that it was only my 2 cents. If I had given the full $1.99, then I might have received an “Editor’s Novella” 😉
This article is skewed. It attributes teacher shortages to fewer Ontario graduates but is not discussing the issue in its entirety. Thousands of internationally educated teachers are certified to teach in Ontario. Why are they not being hired?
Hold it !!!! Let’s be real here for a bit. As parents, aren’t we responsible for some of this demise.
I hear about parent interference that includes :
Constant Undermining of Authority – Some parents refuse to hold their children accountable and instead blame teachers for their kids’ failures, making discipline nearly impossible.
Excessive Demands & Helicopter Parenting – Teachers are expected to cater to every individual child’s needs, even when it’s unrealistic. Some parents demand grade changes, special treatment, or even question the curriculum constantly.
Legal Threats & Social Media Attacks – Teachers increasingly face complaints, lawsuits, and online harassment from parents who feel their child was “wronged.” This creates a hostile working environment.
Further, from the” in school” side, there is a lack of respect & accountability by students … meaning many students expect good grades with minimal effort, and when they don’t get them, they argue or complain instead of improving. Teachers are harassed even physically abused by students daily and there is no fear of consequences because parents have forced schools to weaken discipline policies, making it difficult to enforce classroom rules.
And finally there’s a decline in any work ethic to the point that some students believe they shouldn’t have to work hard and that everything should be catered to their preferences.
Teachers are burned out, disrespected, and unsupported.
So they leave.
If you look at the top ten salary increases on the Sunshine list for the Halton District School Board, the largest increase year to year was 63.82 % given to a “supervisory official.” The remainder of the top ten increases range from approximately 34% to 54% and include department heads, superintendent, other supervisory officials, one secondary teacher, elementary and secondary school principals. Some of these increases occurred more than ten years ago so this is not a new phenomenon. I realize that the numbers may not reflect changes within a role but in what instance can raises like these be justified?
Is this how are education dollars should be spent? I believe it’s time to audit all spending by Boards of Education. A recent trip to Italy by an Ontario Catholic board comes to mind.
We need to really make students the priority, not just pay lip service to this, by spending money at the classroom level. In my opinion, we can achieve this by reallocating funds to hire more teachers and teacher aides, by making boards accountable as to how funds are spent, by cutting some levels of administrative staff, and by preventing elaborate expenditures on fancy buildings and Italian artefacts. Just my opinion.
So much for Stiles campaign promise that she will. hire more teachers. Lol.
Maybe they need to cut down the number of school boards from 72 to 1, so they can increase the pay available for teachers and be able to understand and deal with the issues on a province wide basis.
Shortage of access to psychologists….what the hell! What are we teaching?
One of my economics professors used to tell his classes that “figures can lie and liars can figure” before he discussed statistics or polls. Be careful when you talk about teacher shortages. Also, don’t confuse teachers with school psychologists. A niece of mine a qualified elementary teacher took several years to get employed in a northern Ontario city. Finally, an opening occurred during the present government’s regime and she is finally teaching. Does this suggest a shortage? Sure there is a shortage but please don’t generalize it. Specific examples of towns with shortages would be more helpful.
I am aware of similar problems with people in the school psychologist stream. Their personnel conditions are often very unsatisfactory: not the students. They leave and find other employment. Staff turnover and salaries might be a better focus for an article. When you are working with special needs children you require personal support rather than worrying about your own personnel position.
Yes, we have shortages and there are budgets with dollars in them but it’s the individual working conditions separate from the fancy union contracts that might account for a larger share than simple “figures” may show.