The provincial government is lowering the credit requirements for elementary and middle school teacher certification.
Michael Zwaagstra, high school teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach, explains what the current teacher certification requirements are.
“A prospective teacher needs to complete an initial bachelor's degree, usually a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, that has a minimum of 90 credits. And then within those credits, there is a minimum number of courses that have to be taken in a major and a minor that have to be related to subjects taught in school.”
He says that for early and middle years teachers, there's specific math, science and English requirements that prospective teachers have to meet.
After that, they complete a two-year Bachelor of Education degree.
Under the new rules, new teachers no longer have to take extra credit hours in subjects like math, science and English.
“Now how it's changing is there still a bachelor's degree which is required prior to getting into the education program, but the government is proposing to remove all of the specific subject requirements,” he says. “So no longer is there a requirement for a prospective teacher to take a course in math or courses in science, or even any courses that specifically relate to subjects taught in school.”
He explains they are essentially taking out all of the specific subject requirements in the initial bachelor's degree that a prospective teacher needs to take before going into the Faculty of Education.
Zwaagstra says the main problem that will arise from the change is that there's no guarantee that teachers have the background knowledge that they need in the subjects that they are teaching.
“Right now, under the current requirements, a teacher who goes to the early or middle years program for example, has to take at least two university level math courses, so that way they have some specific math content training.”
He says that by taking that requirement out, you could potentially have teachers go through the system that haven't taken a university level math course.
“The main problem is that you would end up with teachers who are less likely to be knowledgeable about the subjects that they're teaching in school, and that has a negative impact in the long run of students because if the teachers don't know their subject matter very well, then it's going to be very difficult for them to convey it to students.”