School administrators who are still unaware of the number of positions to be filled in the education network will have their answer on Friday morning, when the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, will provide an update on the start of the school year.
Mr. Drainville made the announcement on his X account, where he specifies that “it will notably discuss the positions to be filled.” Data that he had for the moment refused to distribute to school principals, preferring to wait for a ministerial announcement.
The president of the Quebec Federation of Educational Institution Directors, Nicolas Prévost, stressed in an interview with The Duty, Tuesday, having tried to obtain the figures, without success.
“The ministry doesn’t want to. They’re really waiting until after Mr. Drainville’s press conference. This is the first year it’s been like this,” he said.
For the coming school year, the Ministry of Education is forecasting an increase of 20,000 students, which means a need for 1,000 additional teachers. A predicted increase that is almost identical to that of the previous year, according to the government’s dashboard.
Last year, as of August 14, the ministry reported that there were 8,558 teaching positions to be filled. A week later, on August 21, that number had dropped to 3,420. And the day before the start of the school year, on August 28, there were 1,810 teaching positions still vacant.
This year also marks a first for the education network, the majority of teachers received their assignment on August 8, three weeks before the start of the school year.
Before this change, many teachers received their assignments just before the start of classes. However, this is not a miracle solution to the teacher shortage. The measure is rather aimed at “peace of mind for parents, children and staff,” Bernard Drainville argued in a press release published on his social networks last Thursday.