While young people encounter difficulties in reading and writing, or have difficulty taking an interest in books, many denounce a lack of documentation technicians in school libraries, who are replaced by volunteer parents or office workers. .
At the Center de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (CSSMB), on the island of Montreal, the local union has made it a priority. Figures from the Canadian Union of Professional and Office Employees, sent to the To have toshow that, since 2014, the number of documentation technicians in schools has decreased by 17%, from 23 to 19 in 2021.
However, the CSSMB asserts that there were 30 documentation technicians as of September 7, 2013, and that there are 35 as of the same date this year. Figures that the union disputes.
“School libraries have been abused for several years,” said Manon Cholette, president of SEPB-579. Documentation technicians are not well known and they are used less and less, unfortunately. »
“When the volunteers arrived, we saw the drop in positions. So abolitions, or the creation of small positions at 10%, 12% or 40%, which prevent the technician from doing his job in full,” she adds. Others also have to deal with more than one school.
“Abandoned” Libraries
The union representative affirms that the technicians are active in taking care of the libraries and are a pillar in instilling a taste for reading in the students. Among other tasks, they manage the loan of books and make purchases that will interest their young readers, and guide them in their reading. They also organize activities in libraries and train students in research techniques.
The union has just finished drafting a brief to raise awareness of the realities of this profession, which it wishes to submit to the CSSMB and to the new Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville. It recommends in particular that the positions be restored to 12 months and full time, that there be enough qualified personnel on site and that a hiring program for documentation technicians be created. “Each school should have its documentation technician,” says Manon Cholette.
School libraries have been abused for several years. Documentation technicians are not well known and they are used less and less, unfortunately.
Olivier Hamel, school librarian for 13 years at the CSSMB and who visits several schools as part of his work, meets fewer technicians and criticizes a negative impact on libraries, which are “neglected”.
“The rationale for management not to hire technicians is that they see more pressing needs appearing,” he analyses. This is done to the detriment of the library and we end up with recurring problems of declining school results in writing and reading. »
A library is not managed alone, he insists. “In primary schools, it is a massacre. We have libraries that are not functional,” he says.
“Economic” decision
In those operating at the primary level, the directions generally call on volunteer parents. They receive a short training and take care of placing the books, making recovery and repairs. But this concerns only a small part of the tasks of a technician, and the service to students suffers, we lament.
“We made economic choices,” says Éric Pronovost, president of the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ), which represents documentation technicians in 25 school service centers. It takes money to support them, books and libraries. »
The duty contacted several school service centers to find out the number of volunteers who take care of books in schools, but this data is not centralized. As for technicians, there were 626 across the province in 2016, and 629 in 2020, according to data from the Percos management software and sent to the To have to by the FPSS-CSQ.
Schools nevertheless call on office workers to replace technicians, the unions point out.
“A technician told us that, in her school, approximately 700 pounds per year are lost,” says Manon Cholette. She can collect 300 by running after the students. Volunteers, management secretaries and office workers do not do this job. There are thousands of dollars lost in the school network. »
In Sherbrooke, Denis Imbeault, a documentation technician for ten years, explains that two high school buildings have no technicians, and that an office clerk is sometimes called upon. Added to this is the fact that a library has closed due to lack of premises.
These difficulties can create a void, and students from 1D and 2e secondary have been particularly underserved, he says. But, to keep the taste for reading active, “you have to keep up to date with what young people like, and discuss with them,” emphasizes Denis Imbeault. What an office worker has less time to do.