School board to teachers: Why don’t you consider Asia?

Yesterday, we wrote about the desperate situation for newly-minted teachers across Canada. Just to offer one grim figure, there’s 67 per cent underemployment rate in Ontario in the first-year after school. Things are so bad in that province that the government has capped new enrollments in teacher’s colleges.

Today, CBC News reported that job prospects are about to get even worse in Alberta. If the Calgary Board of Education’s budget passes, there will be 172 fewer teachings jobs in the city.

What’s even worse for graduates is that if Calgary decides to hire again in the future, it has committed itself to giving priority to laid-off staff. That will only make it more difficult for new teachers to get hired.

But those graduates may wish to take the advice the board gave to it’s own teachers. They’re encouraging current staff to take leaves of absence, during which they can easily find jobs in China or South Korea.

The Calgary Board of Education’s Karen Demassi, a human resources official, told CBC that the advantage for teachers who pick the Asia option is that time spent overseas will count towards their seniority, should they ever be rehired in Calgary.