There are still 3,858 teaching positions to be filled in the public school system, one week before the start of the school year, shows new data obtained by The Duty ahead of their posting online this afternoon by the Ministry of Education. This is more than at the same time last year.
This number represents a decrease of 32% compared to the 5,704 positions that were to be filled as of August 16, when the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, held a press conference to provide an update on the shortage of teachers in the province’s primary and secondary schools. That is still 4% of teaching positions that remain to be filled one week before the start of the school year in the province’s primary and secondary schools.
“The goal is to give our children, our parents and school staff peace of mind when the school year starts,” the minister said during the press conference. He argued that his department’s decision to move up the deadline to August 8 to complete the process of assigning available teachers would help school service centres fill “vacant” positions in time for the start of the school year.
“The goal is for it to fall as quickly as possible,” he said, referring to the number of teachers to be recruited in the network.
Worse than last year
The number of missing teachers in the network remains higher than at the same time last year, according to the Ministry of Education’s dashboard. On August 21, 2023, the Ministry of Education’s dashboard reported 3,420 positions to fill. However, the school network will need to have 6,005 more teaching positions this year than last year, in particular to respond to the rapid growth in the number of students in the province’s schools, according to Minister Drainville’s office. He thus argues that teacher recruitment is going more smoothly this year, under these circumstances.
However, the number of teaching positions in the public school network had increased even more, by 6,406, between August 24, 2022 and August 21, 2023, data from the Ministry of Education show.
The ministry has also still not published data on the missing employees among other job categories that allow schools to function properly, in addition to teachers.
On Monday, unions affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec stated that more than 4,600 positions still need to be filled among support staff, which includes daycare educators and special education technicians. More than 1,500 positions also need to be filled among professional staff, which includes guidance counsellors and psychoeducators.
Bernard Drainville will hold a press scrum at the National Assembly this afternoon to react to the update of his ministry’s dashboard.
More details will follow.