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The Education Ministry couldn’t say how many teachers are still needed across the province after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling last year restored smaller class sizes and composition of classes after the previous Liberal government stripped those bargaining rights from teachers’ contracts in 2002.

“Schools and districts are very near the end of hiring over 3,500 full-time teachers, the largest hiring campaign of teachers in B.C.’s history,” the ministry said in a statement.

A task force of education experts appointed to assess workforce challenges is expected to provide recommendations by the end of the month, it said.

Hansman said the starting salary for teachers in British Columbia is the second-lowest in Canada, after Quebec, so that’s deterring people from moving to the province, where the high cost of housing is an issue.

He said the Coquitlam and Central Okanagan school districts were among those that “got out of the gate” early with hiring strategies after the top court’s ruling.

He singled out the Vancouver School District for acting too slowly.

“Vancouver seems to be the No. 1 star with not doing itself any favours when it came to recruiting people,” Hansman said.

David Nelson, associate superintendent of the Vancouver school district, said 470 teachers were hired last spring but many have resigned to work in other districts closer to where they live as jobs opened up.

“Our recruitment team has been working countless hours, evenings, weekends, as soon as we knew of the Supreme Court ruling and we did our very best to keep out in front of it,” he said. “But it’s been hard to keep up when you’re also seeing teachers leave on the other end.”