Premier Susan Holt is backing a new pilot project that will give teachers more professional development time during the school year.
The initiative, set to begin this fall in 37 anglophone schools, will give teachers up to 10 additional PD days throughout the school year for planning, collaboration and professional learning.
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She explained that it’s aimed at easing New Brunswick’s teacher shortage and improving student achievement.
Holt says the pilot is designed to give educators more time to prepare and improve their teaching, while also helping students succeed.
“We don’t have the backfill coming in for all the teachers we’ll need,” Holt said during her second live public Q&A session.
“If we want the best teachers, we need to give them the time, tools and support to succeed.”
Holt said the province is currently short about 160 teaching positions, and that schools have increasingly relied on supply teachers, some without formal training, to keep classrooms staffed.
She warned that without changes, the shortage could worsen due to retirements and a lack of incoming educators.
“The expectation is that we will continue to be in a pretty severe teacher shortage for years to come,” she said.
“We need to make sure we have the kind of roles that people want to do as teachers.”
The pilot will be closely monitored over the school year, with data collected on literacy, numeracy, absenteeism and teacher retention.
Holt said the goal is to determine whether the added PD days lead to better results for students and stronger support for educators.
“We want to see our levels of literacy go up. We want to see our levels of numeracy go up. We want to see our absenteeism rates go down,” she said.
“None of those are at the levels that we would want.”
The pilot is based on a similar model already in place in the francophone school system, where teachers receive time every second Friday to collaborate with colleagues and work on student support plans.
Holt said early results from that model have shown improvements in teacher retention and attendance, though literacy and numeracy data are still being evaluated.
She also noted that some anglophone teachers have expressed interest in switching to the francophone system to access the alternate calendar model.
“We were hearing from some of our school leaders that teachers were looking to move to the francophone system,” Holt said.
“The anglophone system was at risk of losing teachers who wanted more time to engage with their teammates and support students.”
Holt emphasized that the pilot will not reduce instructional hours below national norms.
She said New Brunswick currently sits at the higher end of classroom time compared to other provinces, and the pilot would bring it closer to the national average.
“There’s a big difference between the number of hours and the quality of hours,” she said.
“We’re watching the instructional hours to make sure they’re well used by teachers who are motivated, energized and engaged.”
The pilot was developed in consultation with school districts and parent support committees.
Holt said the 36 participating schools were selected based on community interest and district support.
“We weren’t prepared to make a wholesale shift,” she said. “We wanted to test it out and see if it works.”
Holt said the government has no plans to halt the pilot and will evaluate its impact over the next one to two years before considering broader changes.
