The staff shortage in the schools will force a school service center in Lac-Saint-Jean to abolish 4-year-old kindergarten classes, reduce remedial education services and transfer students from school. A decrease in services that could strike elsewhere in Quebec in the coming years.
The Pays-des-Bleuets school service center advised parents of students on Tuesday that due to the shortage of staff which is affecting the region “more quickly” than anticipated, services will have to be reduced as of the next school year. .
“The department of miracles, finding people on a daily basis, has limits,” said Patrice Boivin, director general of the school service center, in a telephone interview.
Due to the shortage of teachers, specialized education technicians and daycare personnel, the service center must “take a step back” in order to find solutions for the schools it serves in an area that goes from Roberval to Dolbeau-Mistassini.
From 19 groups of 4-year-old kindergarten, we will increase to about eight. “We keep them in underprivileged areas,” explains Mr. Boivin. Remedial education services, which had been improved during the pandemic, will also be reduced to a minimum.
“There is a reduction in services, that is clear. For the moment, we still offer a good level of service, but we are not going as far as our means would allow us,” explains the general manager.
A situation, he says, only linked to the shortage of personnel. In short, the money is not lacking.
The service center employs 1,500 people, half of whom are teachers. There is currently a shortage of 200 people and it is expected that 150 people will leave by 2025.
Already, he says, teachers agree to take additional groups, to do some substitution. “We know that we will manage until 2025, but the other years will be worrying, and not just for us,” said Mr. Boivin.
Patrice Boivin believes that if his service center is “one of the first to paint such a clear picture of the situation”, he will not be the last to have to make service cuts.
The Ministry of Education is well aware of the situation, he said. This is a question that is on the agenda at each meeting with Quebec.
At the start of the school year, there was a shortage of more than a thousand teachers in the schools of the province. Difficult to know how many are missing today, Quebec having ceased a few months ago to broadcast its weekly report on the teacher shortage.