Other major contributing factors in the story of the schools' dismal academic performance were the quality of many teachers and the inappropriateness of the curriculum. To criticize the teaching staff is not to deny that there were many gifted and dedicated instructors in various institutions at different times. Lack of professional training was noted as a problem as early as the 1890s. Things had not improved all that much by the early 1960s. Missionary organizations tended to assume that the proper 'missionary spirit' was more important in a potential teacher than normal school or university training in teaching methods.

      The official policy of the government was that the churches should hire professionally trained instructors as teachers, but Ottawa recognized that the pittance it provided for Indian schools made it difficult for the missionaries to do so. Indeed, professionally trained teaching staff were often unavailable for the simple reason that Native schools were not considered desirable posts for teachers. A teaching assignment in a residential school was often the resort of someone unable to secure a post in a more attractive, more conveniently located, non-Native school.

       For most of the history of residential schools, however, far too many unqualified or semi-qualified teachers worked with temporary exemptions from requirements provided by Indian Affairs. In the classrooms of these teachers, students who already faced an uphill academic struggle because of a language deficit and a heavy commitment of their time to work outside the class encountered yet another obstacle to mastering their lessons.