The Nova Scotia Teachers Union is criticizing the Education Department for putting a freeze on issuing special teacher certificates, a requirement for school psychologists and speech-language pathologists.
In a statement from the union Tuesday, president Liette Doucet said the freeze delays the ability to hire more education specialists, one of the primary recommendations in the recently released report on inclusive education in the province.
"The decision to freeze the granting of special certificates is surprising and counterproductive in response to the commission's report and putting students first," Doucet said in the release.
The release on Tuesday follows a memo the union sent its members on May 28 raising concerns that newly announced speech-language pathology and school psychology positions could fall under the Health Department, rather than being NSTU jobs rooted in the Education Department. It also raised the issue of people applying for special certificates being told a freeze was in place.
"Unfortunately, it appears that the [Education Department] has unilaterally made changes to the teacher certification system," the memo says, noting the terms of the Teachers' Professional Agreement state such changes won't happen unless "mutually agreeable to the union and the employer."
'Reviewing and streamlining credentials'
An Education Department spokesperson said in an email consideration is being given to "how we can best support students in providing these professional services."
"Currently, registered professional psychologists and speech pathologists are also required to be certified by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in order to hold a specialist teacher's certificate to work in schools," said Heather Fairbairn.
"These professionals come from respected fields and as such we are reviewing and streamlining credentials for them. This includes looking at teacher certification requirements for these non-teaching positions. While we continue to receive applications for special certificates for these non-teaching positions, we have paused processing them while we work out the process going forward."
While the certificates allow qualified professionals who are not teachers to work in the schools, some of those positions are also filled by people who started as classroom teachers and later took additional training to become specialists.
In the news release from the union, Doucet expressed concern about the freeze coming at a time when potential new hires are graduating from school and looking for jobs in what are high-demand fields across the country.
Education Minister Zach Churchill has previously said it could be difficult to meet the hiring goals right away as set out in the inclusive education report.
Despite that, and the freeze, Fairbairn said the department remains "committed to having these additional resources in place for the next school year."