The massive influx of immigrants clogs the school system, which struggles to integrate them. For more than four weeks, the children of a Quebecer recently returned from a long stay outside the country were not educated, for lack of space in the reception classes.
After several years in the United States, Isabelle Roy returned to live in Quebec in mid-December. Since then, she has had to move heaven and earth to find a place in the reception class for her two children, aged 9 and 14, who do not speak French.
There was no school in Laval ready to welcome them. Her son and daughter therefore spent several weeks at home, before finally starting school this week.
The 9-year-old son of M.me Roy was able to join a reception class. Her daughter has started secondary school but is still waiting for a place in a reception class, which is due to open next week.
I knew before the poor director of the secondary school that he had to open a reception class. He is looking for a teacher.
Isabelle Roy, mother of two children
For several weeks, she multiplied contacts with the Ministry of Education, the schools concerned and her deputy, before finally joining The Press.
“These two schools have done their best, but they lack resources. It hurts,” says Isabelle Roy.
Lengthening deadlines
The shortage of teachers is not unrelated to the difficulty of opening classes for allophone pupils. At the Montreal school service center (CSSDM), the equivalent of seven new primary schools have opened since September.
As a result, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the pace of welcoming new students, says Alain Perron, spokesperson for the CSSDM, who adds that “the pressure is getting strong”. We receive about 150 new families every week who come to register their children.
During the busiest periods, reception class students are generally welcomed 10 to 15 working days after they register with the school service centre.
The problem is the lack of teachers.
We could increase reception staff, but if at the end of the day we don’t have a teacher in class… It’s more and more difficult to find teachers.
Alain Perron, CSSDM spokesperson
“There are a very large number of reception classes that are opening. We may have opened 200 since the start of the school year on the island of Montreal. Each time we open a class, it takes a teacher, “says Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Principals.
At Montreal’s school service center alone, 2,000 more students have been welcomed since the start of the school year. “We did in three months, from September to December, what we did before from September to June”, observes Alain Perron, spokesperson for the CSSDM.
The Laval school service center (CSSDL), like others, has to deal with a significant increase in the number of students who must attend reception classes.
This week alone, 36 new students arrived on CSSDL territory. They joined the 112 who had arrived since the end of November.
The arrival [en grand nombre] of these new students certainly represents a challenge in terms of human resources, especially in the current context of shortages.
Annie Goyette, CSSDL spokesperson
She specifies that there are currently three hospitality teaching positions to be filled, including two at the primary level and one at the secondary level.
Isabelle Roy wonders what Quebec’s plan is to help schools that have to deal with this increase in the number of students.
She speaks perfect French, has knocked on “every door” to try to send her children to school as quickly as possible and is worried about asylum-seeking parents who have just arrived in the country without resources.
“They are displaced from their country, don’t know the language, are in a new environment. It is concerning, it is very concerning,” she said.
What is a welcome class?
Welcome classes were created in 1969 and aim to promote the linguistic integration of newcomers so that young people can then continue their journey in a regular class in French. These classes gained in importance at the turn of the 2000s in order to adapt to the new realities of Quebec immigration.