The turbulence of the pandemic is beginning to weigh heavily on the morale of school staff. The number of short-term disability leaves, particularly for burnout, jumped 50% in one year in private schools. This is a reliable indicator of the state of the troops in the public network, according to actors in the education sector.
“People have been living with a constant level of stress for 22 months. And this year, it’s even worse than last year, ”summarizes Nancy Brousseau, director general of the Federation of private educational establishments (FEEP).
“The teachers, it’s incredible how much pirouette they have done since March 2020. They have had to review all their teaching methods, adapt constantly, in addition to facing COVID outbreaks, masks , distance education. It’s heavy and it doesn’t end, ”adds the representative of 252 private schools at the primary and secondary levels.
The storm hitting the school environment is less severe than the one shaking the health network, but the FEEP indicators are turning red. The “fragility of the teaching staff” is the priority issue for private schools for the year 2022. Nancy Brousseau notes that the public network is experiencing the same challenge.
“The unpredictability of working conditions and constantly changing measures have a significant impact on teaching staff. The expectations of the different parties (parents, students, management) are high and the pressure is strong to adequately support students who need more support. The adaptability of teaching staff is put to the test by changes in approach, teaching method and school organization,” says a FEEP report on the challenges of education for the next year.
We may have avoided service breaks this week, but I can tell you that the teachers are exhausted!
The number of disability leaves among teachers in the private sector has increased from 192 to 289 in the last year, according to figures sent to the FEEP by its insurer. Adding the other categories of personnel, 585 workers in the private school network are on disability leave, mainly for mental health reasons.
This is relatively few, out of a total of nearly 8,500 workers in private schools, but the upward trend raises concerns, explains Nancy Brousseau. She points out that school administrators are also under constant pressure.
Encouraging news emerges all the same in this flood of pandemic difficulties: the first week of returning to class went rather well, underlines the director of the FEEP. Few or no service disruptions have been reported in schools (both public and private) despite fears of understaffing due to the Omicron variant.
The duty noted this week that the return to school has made teachers and children happy, despite fears linked to the ventilation of premises in the midst of the fifth wave of the pandemic.
Professors “at the end”
“We may have avoided breaks in service this week, but I can tell you that the teachers are exhausted! », nuance Marisa Thibault, teacher at the Marie-Rivier elementary school, in the Saint-Michel district in Montreal.
This union delegate says she sees a degree of exhaustion never seen in schools. She and her colleagues feel let down by the government. Pressure is even mounting on the Alliance of Teachers of Montreal to be more aggressive. A long assembly of the union stretched until midnight and a half, in the night from Wednesday to Thursday.
The teachers, it’s incredible everything they’ve done as pirouettes since March 2020. […] It’s heavy and it never ends.
“There was a lot of anger and concern. We have been at the front since the start of the pandemic, we are adapting to constantly changing ministerial decrees, but we have no salary recognition. It doesn’t make sense, they take us for rugs, ”says Marisa Thibault.
She is not surprised by the increase in short-term disability leave, which she observes in the public network as well as in the private sector: teachers only have six sick days per year. No wonder they end up on disability leave, especially in the anxiety-provoking context that has reigned since March 2020, according to the union representative.
Marisa Thibault calls for “COVID leave” for teachers who must isolate themselves due to public health instructions. If they are symptom-free despite a positive screening test result (or one of their relatives is carrying the virus), teachers must teach remotely from home. Not easy for teachers who have young children at home. Several employers, however, offer exceptional leave in these pandemic circumstances, recalls Marisa Thibault.
She is reassured by the support of her school principal, but the problem comes from Quebec, according to the teacher. Marisa Thibault also insists that teachers receive a “COVID bonus” as there is in the health network.
Busy weekends
The nurses are captive to the “compulsory overtime”, but the teachers, they make “emergency replacements”: teachers take turns from hour to hour in front of a class of their school left without holder because of a colleague absent. All kinds of tasks related to the pandemic are also added during periods of personal work which are normally used to meet students in difficulty, to correct exams or to prepare their lessons.
“When a teacher has tasks added to his day, when do you think he makes his corrections or prepares his lessons? Evenings and weekends, without any pay and without recognition,” breathes Marisa Thibault.
The ups and downs of managing COVID-19 are putting a strain on the morale of teachers, underlines Chantal Mailloux, also a teacher at Marie-Rivier school. The doubts about air quality, the windows open in the middle of January, the negotiations surrounding the N95 masks, the “incomprehensible” protocol if a student has symptoms of infection, all this begins to exhaust the staff.