Last Updated on June 29, 2025 by YGK News Staff
Queen’s University is one of 13 post secondary institutions in Ontario receiving provincial funding to expand the number of seats available in the teaching program.
Queen’s additional seats, 300 more expected in the 2025-26 school year, are part of a $55.8 million investment by the Ontario government that Minister Quinn said is meant to protect the futures of Ontario’s children.
“Teachers play a vital role in ensuring our children receive a strong start to their education and future careers,” Quinn said.
“Through this investment, our government is protecting our children’s future by expanding teaching capacity and bringing more highly qualified teachers to communities across Ontario.”
Minister Quinn was at Queen’s University last Friday to make the announcement, saying the province’s goal for this funding is training up to 2600 more teachers by 2026.
Specifically, the Ontario government is looking to open up more seats in high-demand areas including French and technology programs, as well as attempting to fill roles in northern and rural communities throughout the province.
Niki Boytchuk-Hale, Queen’s University’s Rector and a graduate of the Bachelor of Education program, says in her experience the program has been very competitive, and this investment will open up pathways for more teachers to enter the workforce.
As someone who has started wading into the field professionally on a supply teaching basis, she says she’s seen the shortage of teachers firsthand that this investment is aimed to help address.
“There’s a really big shortage of teachers,” Boytchuk-Hale said.
“Kingston will benefit from having more teacher grads in the next couple of years, especially with French… I get texts every single day for supply teaching so there’s clearly a demand.”
Boytchuk-Hale says there seems to be a trend since COVID where more teachers are choosing to retire earlier than they may have in the past, and this boost will look to address that shortage while also taking time to assess what the long term needs could be.
She says it’s almost the opposite of what new teachers were encountering even a decade ago, when new teachers had a tremendously difficult time securing full time positions – and she says the province will also want to avoid over-correcting and oversaturating the market.
“Like 10 years ago , it would take seven years to get off the redundancy list, whereas now in some school boards, it’s down to about two years,” Boytchuk-Hale said.
“There is a balance there because we don’t want people who’ve just invested two years and money into a degree that they can’t use for many years, so I think the province will probably be keeping an eye on that over the next couple years.”
Beyond next year’s goal of 300 new seats, Queen’s is expected to add even more spots for the 2026-27 school year, but has yet to finalize the total numbers.
