The lack of education personnel is affecting several sectors and union federations are challenging Quebec in the face of the shortage, while several teaching positions remain to be filled in view of the start of the school year next week.
The president of the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ) denounced at a press conference on Monday morning the “jovialism” of the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, “who said that there would be a teacher for each class”. “For us, it’s insane,” says Josée Scalabrini. Parents have the right to have the right numbers”.
The situation has caused much ink to flow in recent days. The Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, estimated last week that 700 teaching posts remained to be filled for the start of the school year. He admitted that an unknown number of them will be “not legally qualified” and will have a temporary authorization to meet in front of a group of students. For their part, school principals say that the shortfall is more like 1,400.
The FSE-CSQ is not able to put forward a number, but tends to believe the directors. “We don’t have the official numbers for every place, because there are still assignments in the middle. It will be done all week,” mentioned Josée Scalabrini.
For its part, the Federation of Education Professionals of Quebec (FPPE-CSQ), which represents 35 employment groups including psychologists and speech therapists, can already say that the situation this year will be “worse” than the previous year. ‘last year.
“There were more than 500 vacancies last year for direct student services”, mentioned the president, Jacques Landry. “The situation is not improving, it is getting worse according to our preliminary data. We already have figures comparable to last year”.
The Federation of School Support Staff (FPSS-CSQ) deplores a waiting list of 250 children for childcare services in Lac-Saint-Jean, unheard of according to the union. ” How do we do ? “says the president, Éric Pronovost.
“We are talking about a shortage of all staff, added the president of the Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ), Éric Gingras. We often talk about teachers, but it affects other professionals”. According to him, the negotiations scheduled for the coming weeks should serve to improve working conditions, the workload and put an end to precariousness.