VANCOUVER—The BC Teachers’ Federation is launching a new advertising campaign today focusing on the teacher shortage and need for government to act on recruitment and retention.
With a provincial election on the horizon, teachers have been disappointed that no political party has yet presented an adequate plan to address the teacher shortage and improve working and learning conditions for students.
Even worse, the only party that has made any significant announcement, the BC Conservative Party, has promised a giant step backward for public education if elected. The Conservatives’ commitment to make class sizes larger, rather than investing in children’s future with adequate staffing and school spaces, is extremely alarming and shows a disregard for students’ needs and a gross ignorance of the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that restored class size and composition language to collective agreements in BC.
We need decision makers to see that teachers are stretched too thin, and we need to help parents and the public understand why it is critical to get more teachers into schools to properly support students. The BCTF has been lobbying and will continue to lobby the government to implement a fully funded workforce strategy similar to what they did for health care.
In the ad Hire More Teachers, we show moments of students struggling and teachers there to help—delivering a simple and straightforward call to action: It’s time for BC to hire more teachers. This 30-second commercial anchors a campaign that will be seen on multiple media platforms: live TV, digital streaming services, websites, and Meta-owned social media platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram). There are also three 15-second ads that expand on each scene within the main commercial. Those ads can be found at the links below:
A strong public education system is a foundational piece of healthy and equitable communities. All children deserve to learn in spaces with fully qualified teachers who have the resources and time to prepare lessons and give them attention and care they need to thrive. Unfortunately, the ongoing teacher shortage means that’s not always the case.
The BC Teachers’ Federation has contacted each major party and outlined a deliverable plan for an education workforce strategy. For further details on what a workforce strategy could include, click here.
We are hopeful that BC’s political leaders will have the courage to move beyond the status quo and commit to a plan for the benefit of BC’s families.