Hundreds of teachers hired since NDP elected
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WINNIPEG — Manitoba public schools have added 832 new funded teacher positions since a caucus filled with former educators won the 2023 election.
Education Minister Tracy Schmidt announced on Wednesday that there’s been a six per cent increase in these positions since she and her NDP colleagues took office.
NDP MLAs hosted a news conference at École DSFM Sage Creek — the newest addition to the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine — to tout the news Wednesday.
“We need more teachers here in Manitoba — we especially need more French teachers,” Schmidt told a crowd made up primarily of schoolchildren and educators.
In 2021, Manitoba’s then-Progressive Conservative government started working on a strategy to recruit French-language teachers.
Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, Université de Saint-Boniface and francophone teachers helped draft a road map for 2023-26.
The francophone division has created 41 new teaching positions over the last two years, but no positions were added in its three schools in Westman.
DSFM Supt. Alain Laberge, in an email to the Sun, said that’s because École Jours de Plaine in Laurier, École La Source in Shilo and École Saint-Lazare all have small student-teacher ratios.
“Getting teachers in rural areas is difficult for all school divisions, but if you add the speaking French factor, it is harder to find all teachers needed,” Laberge said. “But we are lucky — beside needing more sub teachers … we have all the teachers we need so far this year.”
Two francophone schools have opened over the last two decades and a new one is set to open in Brandon for the 2028-29 school year.
Division scolaire franco-manitobaine has more than 6,300 registrants this fall. Enrolment grew 4.4 per cent between September 2023 and 2024, the latest numbers show.
The overall public school population rose two per cent last year.
The Brandon School Division has added the equivalent of about 34 full-time teachers over the last two years, Supt. Mathew Gustafson said Wednesday afternoon, adding enrolment has been steadily growing.
» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun