http://www.thestar.com/News/article/190790

Teacher colleges face glut

YVONNE BERG FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Mar 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Daniel Girard
Education reporter

Thousands of aspiring teachers are finding closed doors at education colleges and only part-time positions at Ontario schools – completely opposite to the scenario of a decade ago.

Across the province, more than 16,000 candidates have applied to teachers' colleges for spots beginning this fall, an increase of 113 per cent over the past decade.

Less than half – about 7,500 – will get in, according to various sources, including the Ontario College of Teachers. A record 1,602 individuals have applied to the education faculty at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, for example – a 42 per cent increase in demand from last year. But only about 300 will go to class.

A report issued late last year for the college of teachers surveyed more than 4,000 Ontario teachers and found just one-quarter of non-French elementary school educators outside the Greater Toronto Area found full-time jobs by the end of their first year in the workforce.

One-third of newly certified teachers worked as supply teachers, filling in when others are sick, and 20 per cent worked in two or more schools.

However, in an anomaly that reflects Canada's changing economy, would-be teachers with math, sciences, technology, and French-language backgrounds are more likely to end up working full-time. The report found that two—thirds of math and science-oriented candidates had found a regular job within their first year after teachers' college.

Those with French capability did even better, according to the study, \"Transition to Teaching\".

\"It's simple supply and demand,\" said Frank McIntyre, manager of human resources at the provincial college of teachers and researcher for the 2006 study, released last November.

\"By any employment measure, people with those qualifications are continuing to have a lot of success in getting jobs,\" said McIntyre. \"What we need to do, I think, is get the word out to people who have those kinds of interests that there are jobs available and that teaching is a great career.\"

A dramatically slowing rate of retirement, more teaching spots that were added some years ago, and increased interest by students in a teaching career have all led to the oversupply.

Allowing baby boomer teachers to retire according to the 85 factor – age plus years of service – meant that many left their schools four or five years ago, as opposed to in the next few years. Their losses were replaced at that time.

In addition, teacher schools just across the border, such as in Buffalo, New York, have graduated teachers according to Ontario curriculum guidelines, adding to the glut. About 1,700 potential teachers a year come out of those border schools.

\"We would not be responsible in our work if we were just saying we're going to continue admitting people as we always have,\" said Carol Rolheiser, of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

She's associate dean of teacher education at OISE, the province's largest teachers' college and part of the University of Toronto.

Teachers' colleges are responding to the need in specialized areas, and many are expanding spaces in those high-priority subject spheres. They are also trying to reach out to students from four groups identified as under-represented in post-secondary schools – aboriginal, francophone, students with disabilities and the first in their family to attend university.

\"The challenge is to come up with good solutions without compromising quality,\" said Rolheiser, whose school has seen a 14 per cent increase in applications this year and will boost spots in the priority subject areas as well as among the four under-represented groups.

No one has to convince Marco Antonelli there's a market for math and science teachers.

For the past two years, the engineering student at Oshawa-based UOIT has taught physics, chemistry and math in continuing education at neighbouring Durham College.

The work has not only given Antonelli, 22, some extra spending money, it's launched him on a new career.

\"It's great when you're helping someone with concepts they just don't understand and all of a sudden you see their eyes light up and you know they get it,\" Antonelli said last week following his interview to get into UOIT's faculty of education.

\"That's the moment that gets you into teaching.\"

Antonelli, who is to complete his engineering degree this spring, is among the record 1,602 applicants to the university's education faculty. At UOIT, which bills itself as Ontario's only laptop-based university – every student is issued one with industry-specific software – the four-year-old school is building a strong reputation for science and technology.

That gives its teaching graduates \"a market advantage,\" said William Hunter, dean of UOIT's faculty of education. More than 86 per cent of last year's class now have jobs in the field.

\"Technology will be impacting the teaching profession as far into the future as we can see,\" said Hunter, comparing it to the influence it's had on medicine.

Even those hoping to teach in fields not driven by technology agree.

\"A lot of the time you're going into an environment where your students know more about computers than you,\" said Lisa Graham, 24, an aspiring high school art teacher with a bachelor of fine arts in visual arts and English from Thompson Rivers University in B.C. \"So it only makes sense that you stay on top of it.\"

Those with science backgrounds admit there's often more money to be made in their field than in the classroom. But, like all of the aspiring teachers interviewed at UOIT, their main motivation is a strong belief they can have a big impact on students.

\"I considered the money but it wasn't a deciding factor,\" said Russell Cook, 25, a UOIT education student with a bachelor of science degree in chemical physics from Trent University and a master's in medical biophysics from the University of Western Ontario.

\"If you're not happy in what you're doing, it doesn't matter what you make.\"

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"