At a time when everyone is preparing to empty their desks and their lockers so as not to return to the school gates until August, the announcements in education are multiplying. We are four professors contributing to the training of specialized teachers in the network, i.e. those who work with students experiencing academic difficulties or with special needs. Three news recently caught our attention.
The first concerns the “Strategy to develop school personnel 2022-2026” launched on May 31, which includes a budget of $140 million. Is ‘school staff’ a new synonym for teachers, professionals and support staff? Remember that their roles are very different in supporting student learning and success, but that successful coordination of their actions is not always possible. Do we want here to promote the teaching profession, the public school system or all the actors? These are separate topics, all of which deserve careful consideration.
Another piece of news concerns a report by the Québec Ombudsman according to which the offer of complementary educational services (remedial education, psychoeducation, speech therapy, special education, psychology) suffers from underfunding and imposes interminable delays on parents, which pushes them towards private services. The Minister of Education counters that a new funding model will soon free up 375,000 hours of bureaucracy for direct student services. Thus, the network retains the same number of professionals, but they will be relieved of certain forms.
Faced with the complexity of the needs, the accounting calculation of bureaucratic hours as a strategy is a very simplistic solution. How can we really strengthen the capacity of Quebec schools to support these students? In this regard, there are well-documented solutions for coordinating and organizing interventions and services around students.
However, the Minister of Education rather evokes the success of his “Repondez present” campaign, which invites any holder of a baccalaureate in a discipline taught directly or indirectly at school to come and work there. Does almost any diploma become a guarantee of skills to teach or to provide complementary educational services? Such a thing, accepted in education, would not be accepted elsewhere. We would be curious to hear from members of other professions on the issue.
In the minister’s eyes, is the knowledge possessed by teachers so indistinguishable from that of any other adult with another baccalaureate or even a secondary school diploma?
The third piece of news brings the Committee for the Accreditation of Teacher Training Programs (CAPFE) back to the fore, the committee responsible for analyzing the quality of programs leading to the legal qualification to teach. Once again, the Minister of Education gave his approval to new shortened programs without obtaining the recommendation of CAPFE. However, this committee is made up of primary and secondary school teachers, academics and school professionals, the very people we seek to promote. This decision, according to the ministry, was taken in “the interest of Quebecers”. However, when, exactly, did Quebecers ask to grant patents while ignoring the quality of training?
The colors of the Minister of Education are clearly displayed. The development of education by the players in the network themselves may well be financed, but the Minister has nothing to do with the knowledge possessed by the people who will be given a certificate and who will teach everyone, young and old, with or not school difficulties.
As with the massive opening of 4-year-old kindergartens, it is not the quality that is targeted here, but the quantity, without regard to the working conditions, development and learning of the pupils, nor to the rigorous training that it requires. However, the Minister and his ministry have just published a new reference system for professional teaching skills, which evokes the complexity and importance of the knowledge acquired in initial training on the disciplines and training programs, didactics and pedagogy, students and the learning process.
In short, despite his official policies and strategies, the Minister wants to produce a lot of “academic personnel” with a certificate, as quickly as possible, regardless of the quality of training and the conditions for entry into the profession.
It will always cost less, then, to offer them a campaign to promote them.