Letter to the Minister of Education of Quebec,
Three universities (TELUQ, Université de Sherbrooke and UQAT) now offer intensive training of 30 credits in preschool and elementary education for unqualified teachers in Quebec. This training is awaiting authorization from you to lead their graduates to obtain a teaching certificate.
If such intensive training exists, soon to be “patented”, could intensive training in secondary school teaching see the light of day? Currently, the qualifying master’s degree in secondary education of 60 credits is endless! I know it, I have been registered there since the fall of 2020. However, the admission conditions are the same as those for the intensive training of 30 credits in preschool and elementary education, i.e. a disciplinary bachelor’s degree of 45 credits and a load teaching in a school service center or in a private school.
In short, when will the DESS qualifying in secondary education of 30 credits? Yes, I hear the union sirens crying out for the deprofessionalization of teaching and the devaluation of four-year bachelor’s degrees in education. Yes, I also hear the recriminations of the rectors, for whom the qualifying master’s students represent profits for their faculty of education. It pays off, a qualifying four-year part-time master’s degree! I would be curious to know the dropout rate of qualifying master’s students and the number of requests for extensions after eight years of study.
Colossal load
The workload is colossal: 50 hours per week for a 100% secondary teaching load (planning, delivery, correction, meetings, follow-ups) and 10 hours per weekend for a master’s level university course ( reading, research, work, meetings, forums). Hello work-study-family-private life balance! Is it really relevant to have two practical training courses as part of the qualifying master’s degree when students who have a 100% teaching load spend the majority of their time in secondary school, in their classes and in the teachers’ room, or precisely in their workplace? It is written in the program: no recognition of prior learning. No, the university would lose too much money! Especially since these internships are two or three times more expensive than a graduate course, due to the number of credits.
Honestly, the qualifying master’s degree in secondary education should be slimmed down. Universities should review the relevance of a 60 credit course. The shortage of manpower in education means that there are no longer cases where qualifying master’s students are satisfied with a meager teaching load of 25% and enjoy wide availability for to study. This situation is a thing of the past! Faced with the recurring emails from my university on the deadlines for submitting assignments, I deduce that many students simply cannot complete their session. I would be curious to know the number of assignments submitted late per qualifying master’s session… and the number of assignments not submitted altogether.
Minister, in view of your future dashboard, could you ask the rectors to provide you with all this data? They may be useful to you in your decisions, in particular that of authorizing them to reduce the qualifying master’s degree in secondary education from 60 to 30 credits.