Certification backlog at Ontario College of Teachers leaves prospective educators in the lurch

Major delays in certifying new Ont. teachers Amid staffing shortages in schools, some new teachers say they can't apply for jobs in Ontario due to a certification backlog.

At a time when school boards are experiencing staffing shortages, some new teachers say they can't apply for jobs due to a backlog in certification at the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT).

New teacher Elizabeth Herbert called the experience "incredibly frustrating."

Herbert graduated from the University of New Brunswick last June and applied for certification in Ontario a week later but wasn't certified for six months.

"For August and September I was missing the opportunity to be applying to contract positions and long-term occasional positions," she said.

Herbert said she supplied all the documents by Aug. 1, including proof of identity, a criminal record check, transcripts from both post-secondary and teachers’ college, and proof of language proficiency.

She said the college didn't even start to process her application until December.

Isabelle Choi works in an emergency capacity in Waterloo, but she said she has been waiting for over six months for certification.

"I'm the person who's always sending everything in advance," she said.

Choi graduated teachers’ college in Buffalo last May and tried to get ahead by starting her application early.

According to Ontario Teachers Federation President Chris Cowley, "The college needs to clear these backlogs in order to get these teachers where they belong: in the classroom."

Cowley said the OCT had assured him that the backlog would be fixed by now, but that has not happened.

"I mean, everybody can understand that you know it takes time to certify teachers but something that takes six weeks, should not be taking six months and that's what we're seeing more and more," he said.

In a statement, the Ontario College of Teachers said, in part:

"Since 2019, registration requirements have undergone more changes than in the previous 15 years combined, often with very short implementation timelines…These changes have added to the regular ongoing work of reviewing and assessing all applications for licensure, including doubling the documents received, which in turn, increased certification timelines and processes,” the statement read.

During the pandemic, the province is allowing applications for temporary certificates to help staffing issues. In order to qualify, one must be enrolled in an Ontario faculty of education program, or holding a temporary certificate from another province or territory.

The OCT would not commit to a timeline for fixing the backlog and some people CTV News Toronto spoke with Tuesday said that Ontario is losing prospective teachers because of it.

"I have friends that opted to take jobs in other provinces or territories whose wait time is significantly shorter," Elizabeth Herbert said.

For comparison, Ontario had an expected wait time of 120 days without the backlog. In Alberta, wait time is 14 business days for in-province graduates, and 60 business days for the rest of North America. In BC, wait times are approximately eight weeks.

"I have other colleagues who just started jobs in different sectors," Herbert said, adding that her friends have decided to stay in their jobs outside teaching for at least another year.