A local teacher says high demand compounded with a shortage in substitute teachers is hurting the province's school system.
Richard MacLean says this demand for subs is unheard of.
MacLean teachers business management and entrepreneurship at Halifax West High School, and says based on what he's seeing at his school, substitute teachers are becoming harder to come by this year.
"We're coming upon days when we don't have enough subsitutes to cover teachers who are out, and we're relying more and more on retired teachers rather than new teachers to be substitutes," said MacLean. "It's one of those things I've never seen in my 25 year career."
As a result, MacLean says teachers like himself are under more strain than usual, making it more difficult to teach.
"The more stress the system gets under, the harder and harder it is for us to do the job," he explained. "That's something I think everybody from the minister of education right down to a brand new teacher wants to see resolved."
He says a possible alternative could be to hire permanent subs, but adds there may not be enough substitutes around to do that.
