English language support not matching demand in Saskatchewan schools

School can be extra tough if you’re new to Canada and don’t speak English.

That’s why Saskatchewan schools are supposed to offer English as an Additional Language (EAL) support through the Settlement Workers In Schools (SWIS) outreach program, which is designed to help students settle in their schools of choice.

When the SWIS program first started in Swift Current in 2014, Deanna Baje, executive director of the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre, said there were EAL supports in every school within their region. Now, the only place newcomers in Southwestern Saskatchewan can receive EAL support is at the Swift Current Comprehensive High School. Not a single elementary or middle school in the region currently offers EAL support.

Demand for English language services from the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre far exceeds the level of care available. There are three SWIS support staff at the centre for each 650 clients.

This high demand isn’t just a problem in southwest Saskatchewan; the shortage of EAL support is province-wide.

Increasing immigration without EAL support

The Saskatchewan government celebrates immigrants. In 2023, they successfully negotiated an increase of the province’s “annual allocation of provincial immigration nominees for 2023, 2024 and 2025,” according to a Nov. 1, 2023 press release.

“The province currently has more than 16,000 job vacancies posted on SaskJobs and National Job Bank. A total of 112,260 job openings are forecasted in Saskatchewan over the next five years,” read the press release.

However, many newcomers do not have the support and tools to make a successful transition into Saskatchewan schools and eventually graduate.

Classroom complexities were a key area for the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation during a year full of bargaining discussions, heated debates, and teacher sanctions. According to Samantha Becotte, president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, additional support for EAL learners is a top priority.

She said additional funding and investment is the solution.

“Every child deserves a high-quality education regardless of their background or the challenges that they’re experiencing in the classroom or out of the classroom,” she said. “We want to ensure that they are having timely access to the resources that they need to thrive in Saskatchewan schools.”

The number of EAL students in the province has increased by 83 per cent over the past 10 years, according to STF statistics. However, the level of support has not kept up. In fact, the number of EAL teachers decreased by 3.4 per cent during the same time frame.

A race to catch up students before graduation

Tatiana Makguigan, a current SWIS worker for the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre, recalled a young Chinese child who had spent years in the Saskatchewan school system, attending two different schools within the same division.

It took a concerned teacher to advocate for this student before his needs were finally addressed.

After meeting this student in their Grade 12 year, Makquigan was shocked to learn their English skills were still at a Grade 1 level.

Only now does the student have more EAL support, including additional language learning from the Foundations Learning and Skills Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, but the student had to turn 18 before they were eligible to access the extra help.

Makquigan, and fellow SWIS worker, Rose Wang feel the pinch since Saskatchewan students can only stay in high school until they are 22 before they age out.

There is no process in place to catch these student needs earlier, said Makquigan, and much of the time, it is only through concerned teachers coming forward that students get the help they need.

A lot to learn on top of regular studies

Shawna Jurgens has spent 18 years teaching EAL in Saskatoon elementary schools.

She takes students out of class to work on their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, but there is a lot of ground to cover when it comes to helping a student find academic and societal success. There is vocabulary building and sentence structure to learn. Some students still need to learn the English alphabet, individual letters, and group sounds. They also need to learn about Canadian culture on top of their regular school education.

“In the EAL classes, the students can specifically focus on those language needs that they still have and areas that they still need to grow in and work in order to be successful in the classroom,” said Jorgensen.

More students and travel for EAL teachers

At the start of her Saskatchewan teaching career, Jorgensen worked with an average of 25 students. This past school year, Jurgens taught nearly 80 students. And she isn’t the only EAL teacher in the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division to see this increase over the last few years.

Teaching within the boundary of Saskatoon, Jurgens is sometimes jumping between two to three different schools within the division, while in past years, she has been able to focus support on one school. She can’t imagine how teachers are dealing with this demand in rural divisions.

While some want more EAL support, others see it as a distraction

Baje, from the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre, has gotten “evil looks” for providing SWIS support during school time, especially in the early years of the program, because some teachers see it as a “disruption” to education rather than a help.

At the same time, many teachers and principals want to do more to help students in need of EAL but do not have the resources, said Baje.

Chinook School Division has Rosetta Stone available for all their students. One principal has ensured parents within his school have access to it as well, said Makquigan, who also works for the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre. However, all that the principal can do is give families the password and hope that they can learn independently. That doesn’t always work, said Makquigan, especially when students get stuck on a concept and need further help that isn’t there.

Baje said they can only do so much with the funding they have. The centre applied for a Community Initiatives grant for their Language Explorer’s Club, a program for school-aged children to improve their English outside of school, and their summer program ensures students practice their English skills during the holidays. While these are great opportunities for young people to practice and use their English, this is not the same as EAL support in schools, said Baje, which is something they are not capable of providing.

Cookie-cutter solutions are not always going to spell success for students, especially when effective communication is a challenge, said Jurgens, who teaches EAL in Saskatoon.

Trauma impacting refugee students

Jurgens said newcomers and their families have other concerns outside of learning English.

Recent refugees, including 6,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in Saskatchewan since February 2022, could also be arriving with trauma, mental health concerns, and medical issues.

Teachers are on the front lines of making sure their students have those supports and have to help them build their communication skills so they can talk about those needs.

Jurgens speaks with teachers, educational assistants, and her own regional SWIS staff about the needs of each individual student, which in and of itself is a lot of work because she can be working with between 65 to 80 students a year.

Training for EAL teachers changing

Like many EAL teachers, Jurgens sought out professional development to work with EAL students through the University of Saskatchewan’s Certificate of Teaching English as a Second Language (CERTESL). The Post-Degree Certificate in English as an Additional Language (PDCEAL) education has also been going since 2017, with another cohort starting in January 2025, and overlapping courses were once available for both adult and K-12 educators.

Following the cancellation of CERTESL in 2022, the PDCEAL only has five of the ten previous courses available for current teachers and education students.

Further courses through other universities or colleges will be needed for EAL teachers to receive an Additional Qualification Certificate (AQC) through the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board.

This extra AQC training will give teachers a bump up on the pay scale, said Nadia Prokopchuk, an academic advisor and instructor with the program.

Language proficiency takes years

According to the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Education fact sheet, students need one to two years to build conversational English skills and five to seven years to build academic language skills.

Lack of EAL support creates a glass ceiling for students

Newcomers are not the only ones who need this help, said Prokopchuk. Youth from Indigenous and Hutterite communities with conversational or different variations of English also need EAL support.

“What many of our school divisions and administrators and others need to look at is EAL support for building robust academic English,” said Prokopchuk. If they aren’t successful with the subject areas, particularly at the high school level, we’re creating a glass ceiling for the students. They can’t pursue post-secondary education because they haven’t been able to pass their Grade 12.”

Does an education degree prepare teachers for EAL students

Many students are bright enough and determined enough, she said, but need the right kind of help and a teacher with a standard Bachelor of Education doesn’t always cut it.

When Prokopchuk starts her Current Issues in English as an Additional Language class; one of the five requirements for PDCEAL, she asks a very pointed question of her students, most of whom are already teachers: did your university education prepare you to work with EAL learners in the classroom?

“In every instance, the answer is no, (teachers say) I feel very underprepared, and I feel very overwhelmed every time I receive an EAL student, particularly those who speak no English when they come into the classroom, who speak very minimal or basic English, or if they are refugees or displaced persons,” she said. “We’ve had many, many coming in from parts of the world that are experiencing war and unrest. The situation is quite dire.”

While getting PDCEAL training is a great option for teachers, Becotte is concerned about placing the responsibility on teachers to go and get the training. She said they’re already stretched thin, and encouraging them to take on additional university courses just adds to their overflowing plates.

“I know teachers do their best to meet the needs of all of their students in their class, but a classroom teacher can’t be everything to every student, and that’s why we need those specialists to provide support,” said Becotte.

Enrollment numbers for PDCEAL can vary from year to year, said Prokopchuk, with teachers encouraged to take one class at a time with all classes available in the evening and online.

Some teachers schedule their courses around maternity or educational leave, or new teachers take courses while they’re subbing and waiting to be hired for a permanent position.

Prokopchuk would like to see more collaboration between the schools and school divisions so teachers have more freedom to take these courses.

“School divisions can put resources or funding into professional development that targets EAL, but they can also put money into bursaries for teachers to allow them to take classes,” said Prokopchuk. “If teachers have the support of their school division, that speaks volumes for them. School divisions are saying, we want you to get more training in this area because we know that there’s a specific need.”

The Department of Education fact sheet also reported that EAL needs across the province are evenly split between Saskatoon, Regina, and rural schools.

Teachers with these additional skills could also be half-time EAL educators in schools where none are available, said Prokopchuk.