The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon School Division traditionally has success in recruiting teachers, but the task could become more difficult in the years ahead. Superintendent Blaine Veitch said it may become more arduous for his and other divisions to attract teachers trained in specialty areas such as science, math and special education. "Specialty areas is an area that I think divisions that haven't struggled [to find staff] may start to have some difficulty," he said. Some educators believe Manitoba is experiencing an increasingly severe teacher shortage, but Veitch hasn't seen it within his division. "The decline in our enrollments has also resulted in a decline in teaching staff, so one has offset the other," he said. "That being said, though, about 30 per cent of our present teaching staff is eligible for retirement within five years or less. It does look like there will be more teachers retire than would be reduced due to declining enrollments." The superintendent believes his division has had a greater level of recruiting success than some other divisions, particularly those in rural areas, because of Flin Flon's repute. "Flin Flon has a good reputation as a place to work and live," he said. "It's larger than a lot of other northern communities, it's not as remote, we have a good quality of life here. People that have worked here and left often speak highly of our division." While he feels the number of Manitoba university students studying education is at a healthy level, Veitch suggested that more needs to be done to prepare future teachers for the job. "I think some of the new graduates are getting into schools and maybe find that it really isn't what they expected," he said. "I think we have to do a little better job of educating teachers in their pre-service programs so they know what they're getting into, and working together to ensure that new teachers have the supports they need." The Canadian Teachers' Federation sees credence in that statement. According to the organization, one in every three Canadian teachers now switches careers after five years.
