(Quebec) With almost a week to go before elementary and secondary school students return to class, there are still 3,858 teaching positions to be filled across Quebec, a higher number than at the same time last year. Bernard Drainville is asking school service centres and school boards where the shortage is greatest to submit a “game plan” before the start of the school year.
In Montreal, as of August 21, the Ministry of Education’s dashboard indicates that there are still 318 teaching positions to be filled at the Montreal school service centre (CSSDM), 271 positions at the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service centre and 60 teaching positions at the Pointe-de-l’Île school service centre. In Laval, the school service centre has still not found a taker for 101 of its posted positions. The Marie-Victorin school service centre in Montérégie has 352 unfilled positions, while the capital school service centre in Quebec City is still looking for 63 teachers.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville
On August 8, the last day of teacher assignments for the start of the school year, The Press revealed that the Ministry of Education anticipated the arrival of 20,000 new children during the year in the school network, and that it was necessary to add the equivalent of a thousand teachers to open all the necessary classes.
However, in a press scrum on Wednesday, Education Minister Bernard Drainville revealed that it would be necessary to create 6,000 new teaching positions (full-time or part-time) this year in the network, compared to the total number of positions posted last year, and that this growth could, according to him, be explained by the increase in the number of children from immigrants, moves and teachers who choose to work a four-day position rather than a five-day position.
“We are formulating hypotheses,” however qualified the minister, who will seek to understand why the number of teaching positions is increasing so much. If there are still more than 3,800 teaching positions to be filled for the start of the school year, there were around 3,400 at the same time last year.
In this context, “you will understand that the finish line continues to move away from us [et qu’on] “running after the finish line,” he added.
What about other job categories?
Bernard Drainville is also still unable to quantify the extent to which the shortage is also affecting other employment groups in the Education sector.
On this subject, the ministry’s dashboard remains silent. Earlier this week, education unions affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) estimated that there was still a shortage of 3,400 school educators, just under 1,200 education technicians and 1,500 professional positions.
“What we want is to [publier] reliable data. […] “We will have them in the next few days and as soon as we have this reliability, I will come out publicly to give them to you. I am not delaying anything, I want to give them to you as quickly as possible,” said the minister, in the context where the unions accuse him of hiding figures.