Nearly 4,000 special education technicians have left schools in five years as student needs have exploded, a “dangerous” trend that affects all school support staff.
• Read also: Twice as many teachers have resigned over the past four years
“These are data that make you shudder,” says Éric Pronovost, president of the Fédération du personnel de support scolaire (FPSS-CSQ).
More than 30,000 people out of the approximately 540,000 who worked in support in schools resigned between 2018-2019 and 2022-2023, according to figures that the FPSS obtained by request for access to information.
These include supervisors, school secretaries, janitors, carpenters, daycare educators, among others, many of whom provide direct services to students.
“It’s starting to get very dangerous. We are playing on a very thin line,” worries Mr. Pronovost.
“There are more and more regular positions remaining vacant. And even positions of 35 hours per week, like those of daycare technicians,” he illustrates. These are the employees who actually manage the daycare service.
For example, the number of resignations among special education technicians, who are often responsible for managing students in crisis, has continued to increase in five years, reaching more than 1,000 in 2022-2023 alone.
- Listen to the interview with Éric Pronovost, president of the Fédération du personnel de support scolaire at the microphone of Alexandre Dubé via QUB :
Violence explodes
Moreover, the real figures could be even higher than these, since 11 school service centers did not respond to the FPSS’s requests.
To explain these departures, which do not include retirements, Mr. Pronovost points to precariousness, with many people unable to obtain a full-time position despite the needs in schools.
During this time, violence exploded and buildings suffered from dilapidation, he recalls.
“How is it that I still have recreation technicians who could offer many more extracurricular activities, but who only do 15 hours a week?” explains Mr. Pronovost.
Éric Pronovost, president of the Federation of School Support Personnel.
Archive photo QMI Agency, Joël Lemay
“We see it, we are growing in customers in Quebec. Every year, there are school constructions,” admits Caroline Dupré, president of the Federation of School Service Centers (CSS).
On the other hand, she emphasizes that a change in procedure can partly explain the explosion of resignations. This is because since 2019, there have been fewer consequences for employees who resign in order to apply for another position within the CSS.
Nearly one in three interpreters
The newspaper published an article in December reporting the case of a sign language interpreter technician who had to work a second job because she was unable to have a full-time schedule despite the obvious needs in the field.
However, in 2021-2022 alone, nearly one in three interpreters (29%) resigned out of the 189 from the CSSs that provided figures.
The Ministry of Education also provided figures, but its number of resignations is lower than that obtained directly from the CSS.
How to explain this discrepancy? Not having access to the documentation and methodology in question, the ministry says it is not able to explain it.
In all cases, the trend is the same: each year since 2019, the number of individuals who have resigned from school support staff has continued to increase.
RESIGNED SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF
All categories:
- 2018-2019: 4,587
- 2019-2020: 5004
- 2020-2021: 6417
- 2021-2022: 7783
- 2022-2023: 8121
Total: 31,912
Special education technicians:
- 2018-2019: 340
- 2019-2020: 429
- 2020-2021: 627
- 2021-2022: 835
- 2022-2023: 1053
Total: 3284
Source: FPSS-CSQ. Data obtained from 61 out of 72 school service centers.
“So rewarding” or “window dressing” job?
The lack of childcare educators is so great that a seduction campaign recalling the “rewarding” side of this profession was launched last week.
“Working as an educator in school daycare is… So much love,” we can read on the personneleducateur.ca website.
The Federation of School Service Centers launched this promotion campaign on March 25.
Photo taken from the FCSSQ Facebook
On the home page, we can see a smiling young lady buried in children’s drawings.
More flexibility
Launched on March 25 by the Fédération des CSS, this new website lists job offers in childcare in each region of Quebec.
One of the objectives of this campaign is to promote the new short-term training program which now allows more flexibility for those who would like to follow it while already employed, explains Caroline Dupré.
Childcare services are one of the employment sectors targeted by the government as being particularly affected by the labor shortage, she adds.
Support of $655,000 was therefore granted by the Labor Market Partners Commission to finance this campaign.
Cut schedules
“It’s true that we receive lots of beautiful drawings from children,” quips Éric Pronovost, who mainly sees them as “window dressing”.
Daycare educators still often have short hours with long unpaid breaks, recalls Éric Pronovost. In addition, many experienced educators are suffering from professional burnout due to overload and increased violence.
“This campaign is super well done, super beautiful. But honey doesn’t taste as much like honey once you’re in the field,” he says.
That said, for Mme Dupré, there is truly something rewarding about being the first and last person who comes into contact with children each day.
“We all have a responsibility to put forward what is good in our network. Every day, extraordinary things happen there. There are lots of beautiful and good moments,” she assures.