Exactly $1822.18: that’s what the email I receive says. This is the cost of my full-time internship session in a public high school in Montreal. Oddly, this email arrived on the same day as the announcement by the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, claiming to “eventually” want to pay the interns. Not only am I not paid for my internship, but I have to pay to do it.
While I am currently doing my internship 4, a professional accountability internship in teaching, my roommate is doing her internship at the City of Montreal as a future mechanical engineer. His salary? $20.50 per hour. Although it is not that of a qualified engineer, she earns enough money to pay our little 4 ½ too expensive on the Plateau. For my part, I’m drawing on my savings made during a study break and which were supposed to be used to repay my student loans. I am increasing my financial insecurity. This is also what student associations are denouncing in their new campaign demanding to reverse the weight of precariousness. I agree with this.
A quick Internet search informs me of my status as an unpaid intern. The Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) is clear: “Interns are considered workers when the workplace internship is paid. » I am not paid. I would therefore not be a worker in the eyes of the CNESST. Let me doubt it.
For 14 weeks, I will assume the task of a teacher 100%. I’m the one who plans, creates the presentations and leads the activities. I’m the one who finds the material or creates it. I’m the one fighting with the printer to get copies for the students. I’m the one who manages the class. It’s me who thinks about what can be done for a student who is progressing faster or a student who is having difficulty. It is I who evaluate the students, who check the progress of learning and who ensure that each student reaches their full potential.
This is what the government expects of me as a trainee teacher. Or as a volunteer, it depends.
To tell the truth, I feel exploited and I am disgusted to offer work for free. I denounce the fact that the State takes advantage of young professionals like me. As interns, we come with heads full of ideas and are up to date with the latest research and evidence-based practices in our field of study. The environments that welcome us need us. While my roommate and her fellow engineering interns receive a salary for their work, the contribution of teaching interns is simply not valued.
If we are not workers, what are we? We are cheap labor. We are being exploited. We are women.
A feminist issue
It is striking, but above all destabilizing, to note that unpaid interns are in traditionally female fields: teaching, nursing, social work, sexology and so on. It’s a fact and we can never say it enough. Society has expectations of us: we are in the carewe take care of children, we have a vocation towards others. So why would the government pay these women who have so much to give? Why would he value and thank them when they do it voluntarily?
If the feminists who preceded us fought for the entry of women into the labor market, I believe that our battle in 2024 is the remuneration of the work done by women who are starting their career and who are a few credits away. hardly be fully qualified. At a time when an adult can teach, it is the least we can do to recognize the work done by teachers who are on the verge of obtaining their certification.
After the unanimous vote for the remuneration of interns at the National Assembly in 2023, then the categorical no from the Minister of Higher Education last spring, Mr. Drainville’s announcement on September 26 is like a slap in the face. I feel cheated by the government. And I am insulted not to be recognized as a worker when we are in a deep shortage of teaching staff. How am I less qualified than another adult? I have 107 university credits in French language and didactics, not to mention my three previous internships, also unpaid.
Personally, I considered skipping my final internship, delaying my graduation, and working as a non-legally qualified teacher to receive a salary. I could have just been an adult in another class. Maybe this is a quick way to teach?