Province of Canada needs new workers in schools
Immigration and its consequences. The Department of Education has to work with immigration agencies to find teachers and psychologists.
Public school enrollment in Nova Scotia is rising again after a steep decline early in the COVID-19 pandemic and decades of steady decline.
New data released by the Department of Education shows that enrollment has increased in all regional education centres in the province this fall.
In most counties, the increase from fall 2021 to this fall has been modest, ranging from 1% to 3%, and in the provinces, the increase has been 3.2%.
This turnaround is somewhat surprising after 50 years of falling student numbers. The number of students in the province has steadily declined from more than 200,000 in the early 1970s to 129,121 this fall because of Nova Scotia's ageing population and declining birth rate.
The largest percentage increase in enrollment was at the Tri-County Regional Education Centre in the southwestern part of the province, up 6.1 per cent for the year.
Jeremy Brown, Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Education Common Services Bureau, said: "The jump in enrolment over the last couple of years is probably due to people moving to Nova Scotia from other parts of Canada, increased immigration and the influx of refugees from Ukraine and Syria."
According to Brown, the growing number of students creates problems, especially in finding enough teachers.
Sharp declines in student numbers over the years led to school closures across the province, budget cuts, and reductions in teaching and other staff.
The Department of Education is taking steps to hire more workers, including through province-wide recruitment.
The department participates in virtual job fairs to share information about teaching in Nova Scotia and select candidates and collaborates with other government agencies such as health, immigration and tourism to benefit from their expertise in recruitment.
At the moment, there are not enough guidance counsellors, speech therapists, and school psychologists. And this is a problem, given that part of the increase in enrollment is due to immigration and the arrival of refugees, who often need support services.
"So we go out and say Nova Scotia is a great place to live, it's a great place to work, and please come to Nova Scotia," Jeremy Brown said. — It's more of a collective effort now. Like, we share a lot more with each other and realize that we don't need to compete with each other. We just need to support each other, and any teachers we can bring to Nova Scotia will benefit us all."
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