Northern Manitoba school division offering financial incentives to attract teachers
A northern Manitoba school division is offering financial incentives, including $10,000 payments, to attract new teachers.
The Frontier School Division, which covers most schools in Northern Manitoba, has been short 20 educators all year, with nearly half of its teaching staff over the age of 50.
The division is experiencing difficulty attracting new teachers, especially those trained out of the province. This is because when out-of-province teachers come to Manitoba often their work experience and training isn’t fully recognized.
“We’ve had a number of teachers leave Manitoba simply because they weren’t getting paid as much as they had been before,” said Reg Klassen, chief superintendent, of the Frontier School Division.
The school division and the Frontier Teachers' Association have now signed two memorandums of agreement to make it more appealing for teachers to come work for them.
“We’re desperate,” Klassen said.
One of the new incentives is a promise to match a certified teacher’s salary to what it was before they came to Manitoba.
The other is an offer to give any new bachelor of education graduate $10,000 payments for a full year of work. Those who graduated in 2021 are eligible to get the payment for one year; those who graduated in 2022 can receive it for up to two years; and those who graduated in 2023 are eligible to receive it for three years.
Klassen said the division has money set aside to accommodate these incentives.
“We know that retirements are coming, and we need to be in a position where we can replace those people who have served us for a long time,” Klassen said.
Klassen said they rolled out a different incentive program last year, but it didn’t attract enough people.
The division will re-evaluate the incentive program in the winter to decide if it will continue.
Klassen noted that people are hesitant to come work in remote communities, but it can be a great experience and can provide a wealth of experience and knowledge.
“Once they get there, they find that they’ve got great students, a wonderful community and it’s a great experience,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Donald Trump picks former U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra as ambassador to Canada
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has nominated former diplomat and U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra to be the American ambassador to Canada.
Genetic evidence backs up COVID-19 origin theory that pandemic started in seafood market
A group of researchers say they have more evidence to suggest the COVID-19 pandemic started in a Chinese seafood market where it spread from infected animals to humans. The evidence is laid out in a recent study published in Cell, a scientific journal, nearly five years after the first known COVID-19 outbreak.
This is how much money you need to make to buy a house in Canada's largest cities
The average salary needed to buy a home keeps inching down in cities across Canada, according to the latest data.
'My two daughters were sleeping': London Ont. family in shock after their home riddled with gunfire
A London father and son they’re shocked and confused after their home was riddled with bullets while young children were sleeping inside.
Smuggler arrested with 300 tarantulas strapped to his body
Police in Peru have arrested a man caught trying to leave the country with 320 tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants strapped to his body.
Boissonnault out of cabinet to 'focus on clearing the allegations,' Trudeau announces
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced embattled minister Randy Boissonnault is out of cabinet.
Baby dies after being reported missing in midtown Toronto: police
A four-month-old baby is dead after what Toronto police are calling a “suspicious incident” at a Toronto Community Housing building in the city’s midtown area on Wednesday afternoon.
Sask. woman who refused to provide breath sample did not break the law, court finds
A Saskatchewan woman who refused to provide a breath sample after being stopped by police in Regina did not break the law – as the officer's request was deemed not lawful given the circumstances.
Parole board reverses decision and will allow families of Paul Bernardo's victims to attend upcoming parole hearing in person
The families of the victims of Paul Bernardo will be allowed to attend the serial killer’s upcoming parole hearing in person, the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) says.