Quebec has just plunged into a historic strike. It is the consequence of chronic underfunding and dehumanization of our public services which have lasted for too long.
By dint of pulling the elastic of goodwill, he ends up giving way.
Women on the front line
I am writing this text in the feminine form, because 75% of the people who oversee the health and education of our world are women.
I want to tell you about one of them, my friend Isabelle. Passionate about teaching.
I changed her name because, like so many other strikers, she fears reprisals from her employer. Reporting may result in sanctions. The duty of loyalty is enshrined in his employment contract.
However, it is so important that we know how bad things are in our schools, in order to put in place solutions for our children together.
Teaching is the source of all professions. Everyone goes through school. We transmit knowledge and skills that make us who we are, individually and collectively.
Abandoning our schools as we do is choosing mediocrity.
At their own risk
Member of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE), Isabelle is participating in an unlimited general strike without pay. She and her colleagues are prepared to hold out for a long time if the government persists in its blindness.
They are tired of being treated like pawns by elected officials and managers who clearly understand nothing of the crying needs of the world of education.
The system is failing literally and figuratively.
In Isabelle’s school, bins to catch the rainwater that flowed from the roof stood in the corridors for years…
Beyond salaries
Isabelle is a third-year secondary school teacher in a public school of around 2,000 students outside of Montreal.
Even when she was little, she dreamed of teaching. Today, she feels bad about her profession, even if she continues to believe that it is the most beautiful job in the world, with a minimum of good conditions.
Although full-time teaching is 32 and a half hours, filling this position adequately requires more like 40 to 50.
Like most teachers, Isabelle exhausts herself volunteering hundreds of hours for her classes each year. Not to mention the books and materials she buys with her own money.
Teaching a group of 36 students well, half of whom have learning difficulties, requires more time and energy. There is more paperwork to complete and obviously multiple communications to manage with parents and often missing professionals.
This is without mentioning the time required of her to “patch” unfilled positions and monitor during periods when she should be able to offer recovery.
Like so many others, she spends her time responding to emergencies instead of dedicating herself to teaching creatively.
Now it’s not just the staff who are breaking down, but also our children.
Without our support, it will soon be the whole of society. It even looks like it’s started.