The government, through the Prime Minister, the Minister of Education and the President of the Treasury Board, provided a much-awaited update on the negotiations of collective agreements in education.
First observation: the government has far exceeded the budget planned for the financial year. The Prime Minister is already preparing us for the postponement of the date for returning to a balanced budget which will be announced in a month.
Crisis management
It is undeniable that the government wanted to resolve the crisis at all costs. The salary increases are significant: a teacher could receive up to $110,000 and a psychologist, particularly those working in schools, could receive up to $130,000. It is therefore an important bet that the government is making: to expect that salary will become a key factor of retention and attraction in the education sector. Not having the capacity to resolve the difficult question of class composition or to considerably lighten the workload of teachers who take on several roles, the government is banking on the financial aspect.
- Listen to the political meeting with Yasmine Abdelfadel and Marc-André Leclerc via QUB :
But is it possible that this expensive gamble will not produce the desired effect? Seeing the very narrow majorities with which the agreements were approved, we can doubt it.
The promised gains
Second observation: indeed, the government has achieved some victories, notably with regard to the assignment of teachers on August 8 rather than at the beginning of September, the creation of new permanent positions, the possibility of having teaching students as substitutes, etc. These are quite significant gains which will certainly help meet glaring needs within the network in general and schools in particular.
But is this enough to improve the situation? Is this enough to go beyond simply plugging gaps? The question remains open.
At the end of the government’s press conference, the only observation that we can make is that the crisis management of last fall’s strikes was very costly, that the government agreed to major concessions to stop the strikes. ‘hemorrhage. This certainly does not mean that the public network will improve considerably, that our students will succeed massively and that our teachers will find overflowing motivation.