How to Become a Teacher in New Brunswick

Written November 13, 2026

The short answer

To teach in New Brunswick public schools you need a teacher's certificate from the Office of Teacher Certification in the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Certificates are numbered. Certificate 4 is the entry level for teachers trained in New Brunswick: an approved bachelor's degree in teacher education, 120 university credit hours, 30 credit hours of pedagogical training, teachable-subject coursework, and an 18-week practicum. Certificate 5 raises the total to 150 credit hours. The application fee is $70 if you trained in New Brunswick and $120 if you trained elsewhere in Canada or are applying for an interim certificate.

New Brunswick runs both an anglophone and a francophone school sector, and the certificate is the same gate for both. Your language of instruction is a proficiency question, not a separate certificate.

Step 1: Reach Certificate 4, then Certificate 5

For teachers trained in New Brunswick, the Office publishes the academic requirements level by level. Credit hours for practice teaching do not count toward the totals.

Certificate 4

• An approved bachelor's degree in teacher education
• A minimum of 120 university credit hours, with 30 credit hours in pedagogical training, and either 30 credit hours in a teachable subject plus 30 credit hours in other teachable subjects, or a major (24 credit hours) and a minor (18 credit hours) in two teachable subjects plus 18 other credit hours in teachable subjects
• An 18-week teaching practicum

Certificate 5

• An approved bachelor's degree in teacher education and a bachelor's degree in a teachable subject
• A minimum of 150 university credit hours, with 45 credits in pedagogical training and the same teachable-subject pattern as Certificate 4
• A 15-week teaching practicum

Certificate 6 builds on Certificate 5: an approved Master of Education or a master's degree in a teachable subject with 30 graduate credit hours, or a non-degree program of 30 graduate credit hours in teachable subjects that leads to an additional major, two additional minors, or an additional minor and a concentration — 180 university credit hours in total, with 30 approved graduate credits. Two dead ends are named on the page: a master's degree in education taken to prepare for the teaching profession or for initial certification cannot be used for a Certificate 6, and a bachelor's or master's degree in adult education is not accepted for certification at all.

Step 2: Pick the right form

The form follows where you were trained:

• Form A — you obtained your Bachelor of Education degree in New Brunswick
• Form B — you hold a teaching certificate from another Canadian province or territory
• Form C — you hold a teaching certificate from a country other than Canada

All requirements for the certificate and the instructions for submitting the application are provided on each form, so the form is the checklist. Form A states the $70 fee, payable by money order or cheque to the Minister of Finance, Province of New Brunswick, or by e-Transfer with a confirmation of payment sent with the form. Transcripts are sent directly to the Office of Teacher Certification by the institutions that issued them.

Applications are processed only after all required documents have been received. Allow 20 to 25 business days for processing. Timing matters at the edges of the school year: a certificate is valid as of July 2 if the application is submitted before October 31 of the same year and the training program is completed by August 31 of that year.

Step 3: The fees, from the regulation

Section 18 of the Teacher Certification Regulation under the Education Act sets the fees for evaluating documents submitted for a certificate:

• Initial teacher's certificate, teacher education received in New Brunswick: $70
• Initial teacher's certificate, teacher education received in Canada but outside New Brunswick: $120
• Interim teacher's certificate: $120
• Renewal of an interim teacher's certificate: $50
• Upgrade of a teacher's certificate or interim teacher's certificate: $70
• Principal's certificate for applicants proceeding under section 16: $60
• Initial application for a local teacher's permit: $40

Copies of documents cost $30. These are evaluation fees charged by the Office; they do not include the cost of transcripts, credential evaluations, or language tests, which are the applicant's.

Step 4: The standing requirements behind every form

The regulation puts three gates in front of the Registrar for every applicant, whatever the form. The Registrar may issue a certificate to a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a person who provides evidence of entitlement under Canadian law to obtain employment in Canada as a teacher. The Registrar may require an applicant to demonstrate proficiency in English or in French, and may require a certified criminal record check from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the local police where the applicant lives.

Language testing is spelled out for applicants whose teacher education program was in a language other than English or French. On the English side, the Office accepts an IELTS academic result with an overall score of at least 6.5 and scores of at least 6 in reading, 6 in listening, 7 in writing, and 7 in speaking on a single test, or a TOEFL iBT overall score of 98 with at least 23 in listening, 23 in reading, 25 in writing, and 27 in speaking. On the French side, the TCF and TEF are set at C1 in all four skills, the DALF at C1 overall, and the DELF at B1 overall. IELTS, TOEFL, TCF, and TEF results are valid for two years; DALF and DELF results are valid for life.

The Registrar may also consider the suspension or revocation of your teaching credentials in another jurisdiction, and may require a person who has been absent from teaching for five or more continuous years to take approved courses before taking up a teaching position.

Step 5: Coming from another province or another country

Teachers certified elsewhere in Canada use Form B, and the level they land on follows their credit totals. A valid Canadian teacher's certificate plus an approved bachelor's degree in teacher education with less than 150 credit hours lands at the lower level; add a minimum of 150 credit hours with 45 credit hours in pedagogical training and the file supports the higher level; Certificate 6 then works the same way as for New Brunswick-trained teachers.

Teachers certified outside Canada use Form C and enter on an interim teacher's certificate. The interim ladder mirrors the permanent one: a valid teaching licence from the country where the training was completed and where you worked, an approved bachelor's degree in teacher education, and either 120 credit hours with 30 in pedagogical training and an 18-week practicum, or 150 credit hours with 45 credits in pedagogical training and a 15-week practicum. An interim certificate is the working certificate while you establish yourself in the New Brunswick system; renewal costs $50 under the fee schedule.

The Office of Teacher Certification can be reached at teachercertification@gnb.ca, and its mailing address is at the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in Fredericton.

What the opened pages do not state

The New Brunswick pages opened for this guide state the certificate levels, the credit-hour and practicum requirements, the $70, $120, and $50 fees, and the 20 to 25 business day processing time on Form A. They do not state a tuition figure for New Brunswick Bachelor of Education programs or a teacher salary — pay is set under collective agreements with the school districts, not by the Office of Teacher Certification — so this guide gives neither. The pages also do not publish a single list of approved teachable subjects inside the certificate page itself; the Office links that list separately, and your form is the place to confirm your subjects count.

Related guides:

• How to Become a Teacher in Canada — the national picture: every province certifies its own teachers, and the certificates do not automatically transfer.
• How to Become a Teacher in Ontario — certification through the Ontario College of Teachers, with a registration and annual membership fee instead of a per-certificate evaluation fee.
• How to Become a Teacher in Alberta — another department-run certification route, without a numbered certificate ladder.
• How to Start Getting Your Foreign Teaching Credentials Recognized in Canada — the credential assessment mechanics for teachers trained outside Canada.

Sources

• Government of New Brunswick, Office of Teacher Certification — Interim or Permanent Teacher's Certificate — the certificate as the requirement to teach in New Brunswick public schools, Forms A, B, and C by training location, and the Certificate 4, 5, and 6 academic requirements with credit hours, pedagogical training, teachable subjects, and practicum weeks.
• Government of New Brunswick, Teacher Certification Regulation 2004-8 under the Education Act — the Registrar's citizenship, language, and criminal record gates, and the section 18 fee schedule: $70 initial in-province, $120 initial out-of-province and interim, $50 interim renewal, $70 upgrade.
• Service New Brunswick, Teacher's Certificate Application Form — Form A — the $70 Form A fee and payment methods, transcripts sent directly by institutions, processing only after all documents are received, 20 to 25 business days to process, and the July 2 validity date for applications submitted before October 31 with the training program completed by August 31.
• Government of New Brunswick, Office of Teacher Certification — Language proficiency tests — the accepted English and French tests and scores for applicants whose teacher education was in another language, including IELTS 6.5 overall and TOEFL iBT 98, and the two-year validity of most results.