With a provincewide teachers strike poised to shut down schools on Monday, tutors in Calgary are experiencing a sudden surge in demand for their services. Read More
Parents are wanting educational support for more specialized subjects, seeking out tutors and private educators to prevent their kids from falling behind.
Parents are wanting educational support for more specialized subjects, seeking out tutors and private educators to prevent their kids from falling behind.
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With a provincewide teachers strike poised to shut down schools on Monday, tutors in Calgary are experiencing a sudden surge in demand for their services.
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“In a regular week, we get about three calls on average, but since the strikes have been confirmed, that increased to 10 calls,” Fae Rad of Scholars of Calgary Northwest said Saturday.
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“I actually got five calls on Monday alone. Everyone’s just looking for a structured tutoring program.”
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Parents are wanting educational support for more specialized subjects, seeking out tutors and private educators to prevent their kids from falling behind.
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“I usually get the calls nowadays that parents are actually looking for tutoring for the subjects that they cannot teach their kids, such as science in general, or math, or French,” said Rad.
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Teachers: No deal
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The latest tentative deal between the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association was overwhelmingly rejected on Sept. 29, with 89 per cent of more than 43,000 teachers voting against it.
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Premier Danielle Smith said Saturday there’s no indication job action announced by the teachers’ union will be averted.
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“I think there’s a real disconnect between what the union leadership is putting on the table saying what their members want, and then when they take it to their members it gets voted down,” Smith said on her call-in radio show Saturday.
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“I think there’s a way for everyone to win but it does require the teachers to call off the strike on Monday and so far they haven’t.”
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Rad said Scholars plans to hire more tutors to keep meet growing demand and has already received several resumes from interested applicants.
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“If that exceeds the 30 hours of lessons every day, we’re just going to hire two or three more people,” Rad said. “We’re a team of seven right now, including myself, and we’re just working hours all together.”
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Alex Azarnousch, owner of Calgary Tutoring Centre, said the business is also experiencing a surge in demand in recent days.
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“We have been getting phone calls from parents whose children are from Grade 1 to Grade 12, wanting tutoring so their children do not fall behind during the strike period,” Azarnousch said.
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David Chan of Mathpro Tutoring said they have also noticed an increase in inquiry calls, but won’t be able to tell if there is a definite increase until next week.