Teachers who work in private schools in the province deplore the fact that online teaching continues for hundreds of students when the pandemic context does not justify it. They ask the management of the establishments not to have recourse to it “as long as the teaching conditions and the working conditions are not there”.
“Online teaching leads to a loss of motivation and a taste for learning and effort,” said Marie-Josée Dallaire, vice-president of the Federation of Private Education Staff (FPEP-CSQ). , during a press conference on Wednesday morning to take stock of the start of the school year.
While class attendance is mandatory, the Ministry of Education is allowing pilot projects to be set up that allow online instruction in certain circumstances in private and public schools across the province. This affects cases of bullying at school, severe anxiety, behavioral or learning disorders, distance from major centers or participation in sports-study or arts-study programs requiring absences. .
This initiative, from September 2021 to June 2024, is part of the Digital Plan, which aims to “promote the deployment of distance learning (FAD) in primary and secondary education. As of September 7, 66 projects have been approved, including 49 in the public network and 17 in private establishments, indicated the Ministry of Education to the To have to. This affects approximately 3,500 students and other projects will be added during the year.
Since its implementation, “students who have to travel by bus to go to a sports competition plug into the bus or elsewhere to be able to follow what is being done at school,” explains Marie-Josée Dallaire. “The context is not optimal to be able to establish a strong pedagogical relationship”, she thinks.
A study carried out this year by UQAM researchers at the request of the FPEP-CSQ on the impacts of virtual teaching notes a loss of motivation among students, a decrease in socialization and a regression in the pedagogical relationship between students and teachers, which is of great concern to the union.
Added to this is an additional workload for teachers. “Teaching your class in the presence, and to students who are at the same time at a distance, you have to be placed in a certain way in the class. It limits the possibilities and it complicates the work, ”says the president of the federation, Stéphane Lapointe.
“It’s impossible to establish a relationship, class management, adds Marie-Josée Dallaire. You also have to understand that the scripting of face-to-face teaching versus remote teaching is not done in the same way”.
Not the same vision
At Académie Ste-Thérèse, where there is a sports-elite program and a pilot project to allow students to do school remotely when they are in training camp or at a competition for more than five days , for example outside the country, the management has a different reading of the situation.
“We offer the possibility to the teacher to allow the student to follow the teaching live in the class, when the context allows it”, underlines the director general, Martin Landry, who speaks of a flexible formula negotiated on a piece-by-piece basis. with the teachers. If a laboratory or team work is less suitable, the teaching of notions in mathematics is more so, he says.
Previously, student-athletes with a work plan “left with big, big backpacks,” adds Isabelle Bruneau, director of educational services. “They came back with homework to do for two or three weeks, to recover material. Children paid a little more for. With the pilot project, it was a hybrid compromise and the students have less need to go to recovery,” she says.
According to the two directors, the UQAM study concerns online teaching over a long period, while the pilot project involves “short sequences”, with students with an “elite profile”. “Instead of chasing after teachers when they return from school and go to recuperation, I rather believe that it should be motivating for them to follow their lessons live and not fall too far behind the others”, underlines Martin Landry.
For its part, the Federation of Private Education Establishments (FEEP) agrees “that there is nothing better than having students in class”. “On the other hand, a student who cannot be in school is better to offer him virtual education than nothing at all”, thinks the president, David Bowles.
He believes that there should even be “a greater openness” of the ministry for this formula. “We can’t wait to see the results of the pilot projects so that it is more generalized as is the case in the other provinces, for very specific cases such as hospitalized students and outdoor tournaments”, underlines- he.
Remedial education to have
In addition to online teaching, the issue of catching up on students who have suffered the consequences of the pandemic and what is described as the “explosion in the workload” of staff are also among the concerns of the FPEP-CSQ.
“We notice that the shortcomings persist with the return to face-to-face, so it is important that we create learning conditions and that the workload is realistic so that our professionals can do their job well, underlines Stéphane Lapointe. We had a lot of pressure for pedagogical innovation from our management, it caused a significant work overload”.
Helping students in difficulty notably involves providing more appropriate and individualized support for students, but the union believes that this is an “unrealistic” orientation in classrooms of 35 or more students.
On the side of the FEEP, we are well aware of the delay to be made up for some students. “Over 20% of our students have intervention plans for difficulties. For these students in particular, the pandemic has been very difficult,” says David Bowles. There was a more accentuated delay than we saw before. We pay special attention to them.” He points out that for students in enriched programs, the impact was much less.
“There’s been quite a significant increase in students’ anxiety levels,” he adds. This is a high priority for several schools in our network. We have resources in place.”