A former Nova Scotia teacher is speaking out about impending job action from educators across the province, claiming the system is broken and needs changing.

Kristopher Snarby quit teaching two years ago after nearly a decade in the field. He says successive governments made the school system impossible to teach in.

Snarby claims the dispute between the government and the teachers union is an opportunity to evoke real change.

“I think government has to be willing to be bold,” Snarby said.

The former teacher says many of the problems in the classroom are caused by bigger issues, such as child poverty.

Snarby has spoken out about the reasons he left his job in a blog post, saying the education system isn't working for the majority of Nova Scotia's students or teachers.

“When I taught at the middle school level I used to have to prepare five tests for one class, so I'd have five different types of learners in the same classroom and I'd have to prepare five different versions of the same test,” he said.

He wants Nova Scotians to change the conversation.

“The system they're trying to fix is not fixable without millions and millions – well hundreds of millions invested,” said Snarby.

Money has been a key issue in the dispute between the government and the union. The province says the union is asking for half a billion dollars’ worth of investments for wages and classroom improvements.

Government has no interest in making those classroom improvements part of the teachers' contract.

“Either said no or decided that those items would be better discussed at the workplace committee,” said union president Liette Doucet.

Instead they've asked for a partnership on working conditions to figure out what teachers are dealing with.

“We're certainly driven by what teachers are saying (and) are asking for,” said Education Minister Karen Casey. “They've identified some things in their working conditions that really need to be addressed by that partnership.”

Snarby says it's unrealistic to expect Nova Scotia to find hundreds of millions of dollars.

“But what I'm saying is maybe the whole system needs to be shaken up and rebuilt from the bottom up,” he said.

Snarby says now is the time for a bigger conversation about education.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.