The provincial government is putting the call out to qualified teachers, retired or otherwise, to fill the need for substitutes.

NDP Education critic Jim Dinn is raising the alarm about the availability of substitutes, something he fears will have an impact on educational outcomes. He’s received numerous calls in recent weeks, particularly from teachers in the metro region, who say there is a real difficulty in finding substitutes.

Dinn says he’s been told that teachers have been warned they may have to double up classes.

Before the school year started, the province announced that substitutes were being hired to full-time term contracts to help alleviate the increased demand due to COVID-19 measures.

Education Minister Tom Osborne says while about 70 term contracts were made at that time, increased sick leave, a greater number of retirements and fewer teachers graduating from university means a gap remains.

Osborne says they’re hiring more term contracts and extending the length of those contracts. They’re also increasing the number of days that retired teachers can substitute from 65 to 90 days.

Osborne says the English School District has also been in conversation with Memorial University on increasing enrolment in the education program.

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