(Montreal) Not all students will have a legally qualified teacher when the school year starts, far from it. A few days before their return to class, more than 5,700 positions remain to be filled across the Quebec school system, announced Education Minister Bernard Drainville on Friday.
“I’ll tell you right away: is the shortage over? No, the shortage is not over. It is even less so since we have more students to educate this year,” Mr. Drainville declared at a press briefing.
Although he assured that there would be one teacher per class, he warned that “it will not necessarily be a teacher with a certificate.”
As of Thursday, there were 5,700 positions left to fill across the province, including 1,406 regular full-time positions. “We are confident that it will continue to go down,” the minister stressed.
In the midst of a staff shortage, Quebec must find 3,700 additional teachers compared to last year, while 20,000 new students are expected to be added to the public primary and secondary network.
The Quebec Association of School Management Personnel confirms that again this year, several teachers who are not legally qualified have been hired for the start of the school year.
“The situation remains difficult,” reacted the president of the association, Carl Ouellet, adding that a “slight improvement” has been observed on the ground, especially at the primary level.
For the first time this year, school service centres had until August 8 to assign teachers. A “major” administrative change, which offers greater predictability to managers, the minister rejoiced.
We agree that the assignment on August 8 will not make teachers appear as if by magic, but it is a more efficient way to manage and organize our limited human resources.
Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville
At the same time last year, there were 8,500 teaching positions to fill across the school network, a sign that the situation is improving, he said.
However, the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement has expressed reservations about this comparison. “The figures provided by the Minister of Education today on the positions to be filled are not comparable to those of last year. The latter reflected the number of positions to be filled before the end of all the assignment periods, unlike today,” warned the president of the union, Mélanie Hubert.
According to her, it is essential to improve working conditions, particularly in terms of class composition, to attract and retain teachers in the network.
“We only have a partial picture of the situation of the real support that will be provided to teachers this year and which would lighten their workload,” she lamented.
Pressure on the network
In addition to the challenges of staff shortages, the school network will have to cope with an influx of new students during the year.
While the Minister of Education assured that there would be no shortage of space to accommodate them, he added that “the limit [était] achievement “.
He called on the federal government to “regain control of the immigration process,” particularly to reduce temporary immigration to Quebec.
“This pressure on the school network is very significant,” he argued.