CALGARY (CUP), —— Alberta is sufferim' from a criti— cal, and surprising short~ age of teac‘rms according to a newly released repart- by a professor of the U::i.\‘-~ ersity of Calgary's depart- ment of educational admin- istration. .

For several years the lack of jobs in the teach- ing profession has been getting a great deal of publicity, says Dr. G.‘ Loken. ' ,

In a survey Loken made of graduate students and teach- ers in the province, some of the important problems facing teachers today are:

violence on the schc'xil grounds. abused children Y the abuse of drugs and sex by students destructive criticism by parents and school boards, and / government involvement _ in professional tasks ' Many teachers today, - Loken states, do not choose to teach. In fact, one out

of every eigl': teachers quit after teaching the first year. Many student graduates do’ not «bother applying for

> teaching certificates .

Another important reason ’ for the shortage of teachers I in Alberta is the rate of immigration into the prov— ince.

In 1979, 45,000 people moved into the province, of these, Loken's study shows 10,000 are of school age. This figure added to the 37,000 births in Alberta that same year indicate serious cause for worry. These children will be entering the school system in five or six years, Iokne . says.

Enrolment at the U of C and U. of A have dropped drastically in the last . five years. So has the num- ber of graduatin students applying for teaching cert- ificates each year.

According to Loken, this year the U of (1's education " graduating class in the fac- ulty, of education was only 450 students.

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THE {PEI SUN, Thursday, November 27, 1980, page 3

Last year Calgary's pub- lic school board (alone- This shortage ‘has- leu‘ , says loken, to the current trend of filling vacant teaching spots :;.'-th teach— ers from other" 1' rovinces , usually in the east, and other parts of the world.

In 1979, Inks;~ '53 study shows 919 teal... ._-rs were imported. Over 30 percent of these teachers were from Ontario.

Loken estir'a'tes that the number will he close to 1100 in 17%).

The current st1 Ident- teacher ratio, according to Ioken, is also a matter of concern. (iffficially in Alberta there are 17 stu- dents to one teaCher. In

1

PE! SITUATION

by Maureen Hartman

Prince Edward Island has no shortage of teachers at the moment, nor has it a surplus, according to Ger— ald Arsenault, dean of ed- ucation at UPEI.

"I don't foresee too many active openings for a while," ’Arsenault said Tuesday after- noon. "However, I am extremely pleased about Ioken's findings Local teachers-to-be can look forward to placement in Canada I feel that anyone who would get experience elsewhere Would be twice as valuable here.". ,

There are about 30 students in UPEI's one year B.Ed. pro- gram, and roughly ten or .so in the four year program.

> Three years ago roughly 1/3

of UPEI graduate teachers got jobs, according to the Teachers Federation of PEI, but that number is now down significantly .

The current'students to teacher ratio is 19.1 to l, a spokesman for the Teachers Federation said. (In res-

‘Teachers ‘scarcein Alberta \

reality hcvever, there are closer to .7?" to 30 students per teacher.

At its '-.-rorst_. it sometimes rises to as high as 38 stu—

’ dents to a single teacher.

'Ib simply maintain that ratio Alberta must find a thousand teachers each year.

Alberta can barely meet this need nov and with en— rolment dromving and teachers choosing other fields at the ra:e of 13 per cent per year it (10'in not appear to be getting any better.

The put lic must change its atti ';udes about educ— ation, Loken says. They rmst be made aware of the ricoblems teachers face and offer their support to the pen-p1: responsible for ediviation.

ponse to the above CUP story which states that "one out of every eight teachers quit after teaching the first year", the spokesman thought that fact was not accurate here. He also said that, although statistical data is unavailable, graduate teachers here tend to go into business and insurance, ,jobs which deal with people. In a short report on the . Loken study, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) states that, "Basic education enrolments are projected to grow from about 420,000 in 1980 to about 443,000 by 1985, with additional growth expected in areas of special education. The problem of teacher supply is exacerbated by a high attrition rate in Alberta and media coverage of teacher unemployment in Eastern Cana ."

According to the AUCC teacher shortages also exist in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

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