Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The Quebec government is preparing for a new teacher recruitment blitz in France and Belgium. But for five years, only one candidate from Belgium and barely 89 teachers who studied in France have obtained a teaching certificate from the Ministry of Education. Do not “promise mountains and wonders” to Europeans, advises Stéphanie Verriest, whose training in Belgium is not recognized.
Over the next five years, the government wants to recruit 5,700 teachers to make up for the shortage. Among the initiatives presented to achieve this is recruitment in Europe, mainly in France and Belgium.
Quebec benefits from “an immense capital of sympathy,” declared Jean Boulet, Minister of Labour, a few weeks ago, revealing that a new recruitment mission would take place there at the end of March.
However, since 2016, less than a hundred teachers have studied in France and only one candidate from Belgium who has obtained a teaching certificate from the Ministry of Education.
In comparison, they are 10 times more likely (1,070) to have obtained a Quebec teaching diploma at the end of their studies in Ontario, according to data provided to The Press by the Ministry of Education.
Stéphanie Verriest works full-time as a visual arts teacher in a secondary school on the South Shore of Montreal. She cannot access the patent, because her training acquired in Belgium is not recognized.
To have a legal recognition to teach, I have to go back to do a master’s degree in teaching, when I already have three years of teaching and I taught secondary school in Belgium.
Stéphanie Verriest, teacher whose training is not recognized
In this context, she hopes that the government does not promise “mountains and wonders” to the teachers it courts in Europe and wonders why there is not better recognition of diplomas acquired elsewhere.
She challenged her deputy, the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge. At her office, she said, she was told that each file was different.
Unrecognized training
In the midst of a pandemic, Emmanuel Laforge crossed the Atlantic with his wife and three children to teach in Montreal. He had a three-year contract with the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center (CSSMB).
He says the Ministry is “doing everything” to prevent him from “finding stability.” First by not recognizing his training acquired in Belgium (shorter than the Quebec training) and his 20 years of experience as a teacher.
“Do we think that Belgian training is really mediocre? “, he asks.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Belgian teacher Emmanuel Laforge with his children Perrine, Félix and Géo, as well as his wife Caroline Hicorne
Although he has obtained positive evaluations since he started teaching in an elementary school and that his employer represented him “legally” to have his studies recognized, the Ministry confirmed to him last month that he cannot access the Quebec teaching diploma. In the letter of refusal, he is referred to the government site quebec.ca/devenirenseignement.
His hopes of “seeing things evolve” have faded. At a minimum, he will have to study two years to obtain a qualifying master’s degree in teaching. Otherwise, he will be called upon to change schools according to the contracts.
Like Stéphanie Verriest, Emmanuel Laforge is ready to take extra courses, but it is hard to understand why he is sent back to school for so long. In this context, courting teachers in Belgium is giving them “false hopes”, he says.
“Do the analysis” of the candidates
At the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center, we have welcomed 65 European teachers since 2020, mainly French, we are told, without however being able to tell us how many obtained their teaching certificate once they arrived in Quebec.
In 2019, during the mission organized in Europe in which the three French-speaking school boards of Montreal participated, the Ministry of Education was present to “analyze” the diplomas of the candidates, we are told at the CSSMB.
“It provides a basis [aux candidats] : will I be able to take the steps, what am I missing? explains Nelly Admo, director of the CSSMB’s human resources department. They were not confirmed on the spot that they would have access to the patent, but they were given a “permit to teach”.
The recognition of the studies of teachers from France is “simpler” than for those from other countries, she admits.
Sometimes, certain courses are missing to finalize the patent. It is not: we take the full baccalaureate.
Nelly Admo, director of the CSSMB’s human resources department
Emmanuel Laforge, however, has no other solution than to return to university to find the stability he wants in Quebec, or to go back to Belgium. Since he moved to Montreal, about twenty Belgians have contacted him to find out how to go about becoming a teacher in Quebec.
“I try each time not to discourage them too much, I give the procedure to follow, but I know that they will probably not obtain a license to teach,” he laments.
Mission in France and Belgium
The three French-speaking school boards on the island had sent representatives during the mission held in France and Belgium in 2019. Last week, the CSSMB did not know if it would participate in recruitment this year. At the Center de services scolaire de Montréal, these days will be held virtually “in order to recruit special education teachers and speech therapists”. The Pointe-de-l’Île school service center indicated that it had no “details” on the mission, but added that it had been carrying out its own missions for four years. That of last fall allowed him to recruit 25 candidates.
Learn more
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- From 200 to 300
- Number of “full-time” teachers missing in Quebec schools each school year
Source: Ministry of Education