Haylee Weese hadn’t yet graduated from teachers’ college this spring when she was snapped up by a GTA school board eager to hire her for September.

“I’m excited, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” says the 24-year-old from London, Ont., who earned her teaching degree at the University of Ottawa and walked across the stage a few weeks ago to collect her parchment.

Weese’s quick jump to a teaching position is not the usual narrative for new teachers in Ontario, who typically toil for years on supply rosters before landing a permanent job, as a result of a decade-long teacher surplus.

But she has the big qualification that school boards across the country are chasing these days: French. Weese is bilingual, took her teaching degree in French and is certified to teach French immersion, which is booming in boards all over the province.

Come fall, she’ll be spending full days speaking French with a roomful of Grade 2 students in the York Region District School Board, “which I am thrilled about.”

Landing a teaching job was a different story for Marysia Bulanowski of Toronto, who had to move to British Columbia to secure full-time work. B.C. desperately needs teachers.

“I’m young and I’m motivated and I wanted to start my career,” says Bulanowski, 23, who will be teaching music full-time at an elementary school with the Burnaby board near Vancouver in September.

While English-language teachers face an uphill battle to get hired in Ontario, French-speaking graduates like Weese are in big demand as school boards struggle to staff the growing number of French immersion and extended-French programs families are clamouring for.

Enrolment in French immersion has grown an average of 6 per cent a year for 11 consecutive years, with almost 213,000 students in programs in 2015-16, according to Ministry of Education statistics.

But at the same time school boards have faced “persistent challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers” qualified to teach it at both elementary and high school levels, says a report on the shortage released last month.

There is a “growing gap,” says the report by the FSL Labour Market Partnership Committee, a project led by the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development. But it’s tough to quantify the mismatch between supply and demand for many reasons, including the fact many qualified French teachers may teach English subjects.

As a result, the total number of teachers qualified to teach French — close to 32,000 according to the Ontario College of Teachers — is not in reality the number available.

The report also found:

Two-thirds of English school boards said finding qualified French teachers has become more of a challenge in the last three to five years.

Job applications received by those boards from graduates qualified to teach French dropped by 54 per cent over the last three years from more than about 8,000 to fewer than 4,000 for 2017-18.

Fewer students overall applied to teachers’ colleges after they were extended to two-years in 2015. That led to a 60-per-cent decline in the number of new French immersion teachers. There were 40 per cent fewer teachers who chose to earn French qualifications after graduating.

The bottom line is that while Ontario students have the right to an education in both official languages, a French teacher shortage means they won’t necessarily get it.

“It’s a bit of a complicated chess game right now,” says Imran Syed, principal of Sir J.A. Macdonald Public School in Pickering, where about 65 per cent of students are in the French immersion stream.

“You do have to act quickly to hire them. It’s a huge challenge for all of us.”

The dilemma is heightened in the final months of the school year as boards compete to lock in staff for the fall, and wrestle with finding French-speaking supply teachers to cover for classroom teachers during absences that typically increase in May and June.

Job prospects are starting to improve for English language teachers as a result of more retirements and fewer graduates.

But the French teacher crunch of the last three years is forecast to continue unless “much more vigorous recruitment” is put in place, says the latest employment survey from the Ontario College of Teachers.

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The impact can be felt across the province.

In Peel Region, Ontario’s second-largest school board has maintained a cap on French immersion enrolment since 2012 because it cannot hire enough teachers.

“Ultimately, it’s about offering quality French programming for the kids and that means having qualified teachers in front of the students first and foremost,” says Adrian Graham, superintendent of curriculum and instruction support services at Peel District School Board.

The current policy, which means students are selected randomly in a lottery system “is the most realistic way to manage the issue,” he says. “It’s unrealistic to open it up to everyone.”

Nearby Halton Catholic District School Board came close to terminating its five-year-old French immersion program last fall because of the teacher shortfall, a situation exacerbated by the fact that like most Catholic boards, it only hires Catholic teachers.

The decision was voted down following public outcry. However, this spring the board opted for a randomized selection process, so not everyone who wanted a spot for next fall got one.

“It’s disappointing,” says Cheryl Neves, who has three children in French immersion at St. Brigid Catholic Elementary School in Georgetown and teaches French immersion at another board.

“I feel that anyone in Canada who chooses should have the right to be educated in French, says Neves. “Putting caps and restrictions takes away that right.”

The Toronto District School Board is aggressively recruiting teachers to fill positions, including in Europe. The board, which grants spots to all students seeking a French education and provides busing for those in elementary school, is currently reviewing all French programs — including core French, early immersion and extended French programs that begin in Grades 4 or 7 — and held public consultations this spring.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board, which added five new French immersion sites last fall and will add another five in September, has extended its recruiting to Quebec in an effort to avoid having to resort to uncertified teachers to fill the void, says Dan Koenig, associate director of academic services.

Meanwhile groups representing parents and school boards are urging the province to take concrete action.

The advocacy and research group Canadian Parents for French continues to push for measures promised by the Liberals last fall. They include removing barriers for recruiting teachers from abroad; a strategy to attract more French-speaking candidates to teachers’ college; and piloting a program that provides financial assistance to certified teachers who want to boost their French qualifications.

Haylee Weese says while new measures to attract more teachers is important, they need to bring a passion for French and the love of learning languages.

“I always tell myself I want to be hired because I’m a good teacher,” says Weese. “You have the job because you’ve spent your life learning (French), and you’re qualified.”