The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, on Friday rebuked the Montreal School Service Center (CSSDM), which transformed hours funded for the training of future orderlies and auxiliary nurses into “hours at home”. Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy, for her part, demanded a reimbursement from the CSSDM.
“No, the minister does not agree with this practice,” declared the Drainville cabinet in response.
The duty revealed that CSSDM accelerated programs to become a patient attendant or practical nurse include “at home” hours in a proportion of up to 17% of training time. These hours, which are funded by the Ministry of Education, are not allocated to teachers.
In an accelerated program, a future practical nurse spends, for example, 305 of the 1,800 hours of their training doing “jobs” at home. She has the “responsibility” to carry out these “seriously”, although these hours are not supervised by a teacher, underlines the CSSDM.
Friday, the Minister of Education recalled that the number of hours allocated to training is prescribed by the ministry. “So students are entitled to all of these teaching hours,” his office said. The hours scheduled for training must all be supervised by teaching staff, he added. “So the hours planned for training cannot be allocated for work or homework. »
The CSSDM then contradicted these statements. “Teaching services can be offered through various training methods,” he replied, referring to the educational regime of professional training.
According to Marwah Rizqy, the CSSDM should reimburse the amounts it received and which were allocated to “at home” hours. “The ministry should [aussi] follow up to ensure that these students receive the missing training if necessary,” she asked.
“It’s not just the student who is cheated. It’s the government, but also the patient. They are beneficiary attendants and auxiliary nurses. Now that training time is being reduced, the few hours devoted to it are crucial. We have to take this really seriously,” she said.
“Paying for “time at home” with our taxes is ridiculous and not instructive,” she also wrote on the social network X.
Training for beneficiary attendants and accelerated practical nurses… and partly at home!
Going to school means really going to school. Paying for “time at home” with our taxes is ridiculous and not informative! https://t.co/Wa2wFbhsMG— Marwah Rizqy (@marwahrizqy) November 10, 2023
Where is the money ?
At the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), the president, Réjean Leclerc, questioned the path taken by the money that is transferred from the ministry to the school for the training of students, but which is ultimately transformed into hours of “home” work.
“If the money isn’t given to the student, it’s somewhere in the system. And it’s not in the teacher’s pocket: there isn’t one, a teacher. So it must be in the pockets of the administrator, the establishment, the management or anyone. What do they do with it? » he asked. “It’s the administration that picks up the cash. And that’s a problem. »
The quality of the training offered also worries Mr. Leclerc. “There is a high potential for these hours at home to be wasted hours, because there is no supervision,” he stressed.
In a response previously provided to Duty, the CSSDM wrote that the student had the responsibility to “seriously do” the work required of him during these hours “at home”. The availability of teachers “is not required” in “real time”, but the student always has the opportunity to correspond with them, also reminded the School Service Center. “When returning to class, the teacher validates the students’ understanding in relation to the material contained in the tutorials,” wrote the CSSDM.
In the context of a labor shortage, this solution may seem “beautiful”, but it carries risks, according to Mr. Leclerc. The training is “first level”, he recalled. “It’s not as if he was a general practitioner who specialized,” he illustrated. “There, we start from scratch, we half train them and there are pieces that are made at home. » Mr. Leclerc, himself a paramedic, said he feared that students would experience a “shock” once they arrived on the field.
Level down
At Québec solidaire, MP Ruba Ghazal said she shared the fears of certain teachers at the Faubourgs-de-Montreal Trade School, where accelerated training courses containing “at home” hours are given.
“The labor shortage should not be a pretext for dragging down vocational training programs. It is important that the training is comprehensive in order to adequately equip workers,” underlined Mr.me Ghazal. “I understand the teachers’ concerns, it is important to listen to them, they are the experts. »
MP Joël Arseneau, of the Parti Québécois, also said he shared the teachers’ concerns. ” As [eux], I think that all the hours prescribed in the program, already highly condensed, must be allocated to teaching as such, training in the classroom or in the workplace,” he declared. “Something’s wrong here. It is not normal for the Department of Education not to be aware of “at home” hours in a study program it funds. That he denies their existence, even though it has been confirmed by the Montreal School Service Center, is disturbing,” he continued.
In a response sent to Duty On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education wrote that hours at home “are not included in the study programs” such as accelerated training to become a beneficiary attendant or auxiliary nurse. The CSSDM, on the other hand, confirmed that these “at home” hours were financed by the ministry.