![\"Nova](\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Churchill-Aug-14-20-500x377.jpg\")
Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Zach Churchill. Photo: Nova Scotia Government<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Churchill also announced $40 million in provincial funding to hire more teachers and cleaning staff as well as supplies.<\/p>\n He says every school in the province is currently being assessed to determine if their ventilation systems and windows can adequately circulate the air in the buildings to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19<\/p>\n The minister has committed to ensuring those that need to be improved will receive the proper attention.<\/p>\n As part of Friday\u2019s announcement, the education minister says close to $30 million of the $40 million in new funding will be used to hire substitute teachers.<\/p>\n To find that many substitutes, the minister says he will exercise tri-partite agreements in place between the department, regional centres for education and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union to hire people without a bachelor of education degree.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using those as the basis those to go outside of the B Ed requirement for substitute teachers, and bring in other qualified people who might not have a B Ed because at the end of the day, we need to have people in school to run our schools,\u201d says Churchill. \u201cIf we are facing a risk of less people being there because of COVID, we need to be prepared to meet that demand in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n President of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union Paul Wozney says the only places where the tri-partite agreement was approved in the last 15 years are the CSAP and Tri-Counties regions.<\/p>\n Requests for a tri-partite agreement made by the province's two largest regional centres, Halifax and Chignecto last year were turned down by the union, according to Wozney.<\/p>\n He agrees more substitutes will need to be hired to meet the demand but says putting an adult in front of a classroom requires more than having two feet and a heartbeat.<\/p>\n \u201cBut really, that feeds the notion of public school as babysitting and not a place where meaningful learning occurs,\u201d says Wozney. \u201cThat\u2019s a slap in the face to everybody who is qualified to teach in this province, who have spent a lifetime being properly educated and trained to make sure kids have the best public education possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Wozney says the move is also a slap in the face to substitute teachers across the province who are equally as qualified as their full-time colleagues.<\/p>\n While the education minister is assuring teachers that qualified personnel will be hired before unqualified staff, Wozney isn\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we all know principals are going to be run off feet, starting September 8, to find people to cover for teachers who are sick and displaying symptoms. It\u2019s entirely plausible that fully qualified substitutes are going to lose work to unqualified substitutes as a matter of convenience for the school system,\u201d says Wozney.<\/p>\n The NSTU president calls the entire situation an incredibly slippery slope for his members.<\/p>\n Churchill couldn\u2019t say what qualifications a substitute without a B Ed would need to have, referring the matter to the local regional centres.<\/p>\n A call to the south shore regional centre for education went unreturned before the time of this report.<\/p>\nPlan to hire unqualified substitutes upsets teachers union<\/h3>\n