One of the first decisions of the new Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, will be decisive for the quality of education in French. The Minister will have to decide on a draft regulation which provides for granting a period of five years to teachers trained abroad before taking the written French exam, which is compulsory for aspiring teachers trained in Quebec.
This project published discreetly in the Official Gazette du Québec, on August 31, in the middle of the election campaign, is the subject of strong criticism in the education sector. The deans of faculties of education and school principals are going to the front to denounce this “unjustified” drop in the requirements for mastering French for teachers from other countries.
“The proposed regulations would grant internationally trained individuals the opportunity to obtain a probationary license and teach students in the province for a period of five years without ever having passed the language test! “Is indignant the Association of deans, deans and directors, directors for the study and research in education in Quebec (ADEREQ) in a notice dated October 11, 2022.
“This necessarily supposes that we agree to send people who are said to be qualified to schools without ever having checked whether they have a minimum competence in the language of instruction, add the deans. Not only does such a proposal seem unacceptable to us, but it is unjustifiable and unfair with regard to the requirements imposed on students enrolled in Quebec teaching bachelor’s degrees who must pass the language test before starting their internship 3 (or before the last internship for qualifying master’s programs). »
Against the shortage
The Ministry of Education says it proposed this measure to encourage the recruitment of foreign teachers, due to the shortage of teachers in Quebec schools. More than 700 full-time teachers were missing in primary and secondary schools when the school year started, almost two months ago.
“The objective would be to enable teachers trained outside of Canada to be legally employed more quickly and to have all the time necessary to complete their immigration and integration procedures and to apply for authorization to ‘teach,’ says Esther Chouinard, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education.
“These are qualified teachers in their country, often with a lot of teaching experience. Most hold bachelor’s degrees in education, but they are not totally equivalent to those in Quebec,” she adds.
The five-year deadline for taking the written French exam “would in no way change the employer’s obligation [les centres de services scolaires] to check a person’s level of knowledge of the language when hiring,” says Esther Chouinard.
Systemic Barriers
Teachers of foreign origin have long denounced the sometimes insurmountable obstacles to making their way to Quebec schools. The rules for recognition of diplomas are considered obscure and finicky. Education researchers are also calling for a diversification of access routes to the profession for immigrant teachers, many of whom are well and truly qualified to find themselves in a class in Quebec. This is why the government is trying to facilitate the integration of foreign teachers.
Lowering the French language requirements, however, is a contested way of paving the way for teachers trained outside of Canada. Especially since the Ministry of Education considers “legally qualified” foreign teachers who obtain a probationary license, even if they do not have a valid certificate – they must take university courses to complete their training.
“In my opinion, Quebec is trying to keep up appearances by reducing the number of non-legally qualified teachers. We play with statistics, we play with words to reassure the population, but we, at the university, are far from being reassured,” says Anne Lessard, dean of the Faculty of Education at the Université de Sherbrooke. .
This “leveling down” of requirements opening the way to teaching “totally devalues the profession. It demoralizes the troops,” she adds.
Permit more accessible
The duration of probationary teaching permits would also increase from five years to ten years, according to the draft regulation. These permits are renewable for five years. This worries Jean Bélanger, president of ADEREQ and dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
“It would be possible not to have a bachelor’s degree in teaching, not to be competent to teach in French and to be considered qualified to teach,” he explains.
The Dean also wonders about the expansion of access to the probationary permit, which until now was only granted to people already qualified in teaching in their country of origin. A proposed modification adds three new situations that no longer refer to this qualification, “but rather to training that introduces the very broad notion of “equivalent diploma””.
These changes do not bode well in Montreal schools, where a significant proportion of students have a mother tongue other than French, underlines Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Principals (AMDES). . “These students need very competent teachers in spoken and written French. Parents often don’t speak French well enough to help their children with their homework,” she says.
The Ministry of Education indicates that it “will take the time to collect and analyze all the comments received and will make changes to the draft regulations, if necessary. It is therefore too early to confirm any changes.”