Teachers who have a majority of students in difficulty in their groups could obtain bonuses of up to $8,000 if Quebec fails to open new classes or provide them with additional help, provides for the agreement in principle between Quebec and teachers of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) obtained by The Press.
The composition of the class was cited as a central element of negotiations with Quebec by many FAE teachers, who were on strike and without pay for more than a month, last November and December.
The agreement in principle, which must be ratified by the 66,500 members in the coming weeks, provides for “mitigation measures” if cohorts of students are made up of too many students in difficulty.
At primary level, these measures apply as soon as 60% of students are in difficulty. In secondary school, this threshold is set at 50%. To set these thresholds, school service centers will have to take into account “all students with an integrated intervention plan in the regular class”.
At the primary level, Quebec puts 19.1 million on the table. When “the accumulation of difficulties [des élèves] reaches a threshold of 60%”, groups are opened, “subject to premises and legally qualified teachers available in the targeted cohort”.
If opening groups is impossible, mitigation measures are then planned, for example classroom assistance or even special services. If none of these measures can be applied, the payment of a bonus of $8,000 is planned, “in proportion to the time actually worked with the students in this cohort”.
In secondary education, 14.2 million are planned to help teachers. The threshold for students in difficulty is set at 50% per cohort. We are counting “priority” on the addition of special education technicians, but the opening of groups is also planned, if teachers can be hired.
The agreement provides that teachers be “consulted regarding the distribution of mitigation measures granted to their cohort.”
The Autonomous Education Federation did not wish to comment on the agreement in principle. “The will of the FAE remains the same: to respect the democratic process,” the union declared to The Press.
In December, while the union was still in negotiations with Quebec, the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert, explained that the composition of the class was a “major issue” in this negotiation.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert
Classroom aids
The agreement provides for the deployment of 4,000 classroom aids from the next school year. This help, often from daycare staff and special education technicians, will be distributed “with particular attention to classes with particular challenges identified by the class composition mechanism and to teachers in professional integration”.
“The classroom support service cannot replace support and professional services,” we read in the agreement in principle.
The Autonomous Education Federation has nine affiliated unions, located in Montreal, Quebec, Laval, but also in the Laurentians, Estrie and Outaouais. At the end of a strike lasting more than 20 days, the FAE recommended that its members accept this agreement in principle. Most will learn about it in detail next week.
On the salary front, the FAE obtained parity with the proposed agreement from the Union Common Front, which provides for salary increases of 17.4% over five years.