Overrated students
The newsletter as it currently is must change, believe more than 82% of preschool, primary and special education teachers. This could be done, for example, by reducing the number of skills that teachers assess in each report card and the number of reports issued each year, says Josée Scalabrini, president of the Federation of Teachers’ Unions. “What the parent wants to know is how their child is doing,” she says.
What’s more, nearly 80% of teachers surveyed by the FSE find that too much time in class is spent evaluating students and that this has repercussions on the time devoted to learning. “We want to spend more time teaching than evaluating,” adds M.me Scalabrini.
At the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the union consulted up to 7,000 of its members on a number of themes, and discussions on these will take place on Friday as part of a symposium held in Laval. The unions do not “only get involved in collective agreements”, they also talk about pedagogy, indicates the president of the FSE.
Lack of time to teach French
The quality of French among young Quebecers has been at the heart of many discussions in recent months. Education Minister Bernard Drainville promised in early 2023 to “deal with it”. How ? Among primary school teachers, 60% say that the teaching time is insufficient to cover the French program and a larger majority (70%) think that the French program should be reviewed.
“It ties in with an idea that we’ve been defending for years: you need a prescribed minimum time when there’s a compulsory course in a program,” says Josée Scalabrini. “We have agreed over the years to cut a lot of hours in lessons, because there are selective projects, other priorities for the school…”, she illustrates.
Train unqualified teachers
In a context of shortage, more and more teachers arrive in schools without having obtained their certificate after university training. The vast majority (96.7%) of teachers who have this teaching license would like school service centers to be obliged to offer “basic” pedagogical training to people who are not legally qualified.
These newcomers bring “a terrible workload” for qualified teachers, says Ms.me Scalabrini. “It would be the least we could do to accompany them,” she adds.
Ideas for retaining teachers
About a quarter of teachers leave the profession after less than five years in schools. Whether they are at the start of their career or not, how do you convince teachers to stay? It is necessary to work on the composition of the groups of pupils, the overload of work, and to attack the lack of support and accompaniment for the pupils in difficulty, answered in priority the members of the FSE.
Classroom aids are welcome.
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, wants to add 4,000 “classroom assistants” to the school network, people who would support the work of teachers. This idea does not come up against much opposition among union members of the FSE. Nine out of ten teachers would like to be supported “on a daily basis in the performance of non-pedagogical tasks”.