If hundreds of new daycare places have been promised by Quebec, the CPEs of Bas-Saint-Laurent continue to juggle with a shortage of educators.
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“It’s a management challenge,” commented the director general of the CPE Aurore Boréale, Annie Fraser. “There are a lot of CPEs that are in temporary installations that will open soon”.
“The places promised by the Minister of the Family, Mathieu Lacombe, will not open. There will be no workers if the trend continues,” said the president of the Federation of Early Childhood Workers of Quebec (FIPEQ), Valérie Grenon.
And the next generation continues to be expected, while the enrollment rate in early childhood education techniques remains low in several regions.
They are also steadily declining at the Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup. In 2019, 66 people were enrolled in the technique, compared to 61 in 2020, and only 60 students are taking this training this year.
“Before establishing a new technical program in the same region, we must ensure that the places that are reserved in the establishment are filled,” commented the president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, Samuel Vaillancourt, in specifying in the same breath that the program in Rivière-du-Loup has very few quotas.
“Our profession has received very little value from year to year. Is it because it is a predominantly female profession the wages are very low? ”Asked Ms. Grenon. “We are still one of the lowest paid techniques”.
Yet, several scholarships of up to thousands of dollars are offered to students. But where the rub is at the level of support given to educators.
“There are more and more children with special needs. Beyond the negotiations, this aspect will have to be improved. Support is not in place. The sums available are not there either,” she said.
Faced with the shortage of educators, CPEs must be competitive in order to attract labour.
“We made decisions that lead us to offer full-time, even if we only needed it part-time. We are going to help with pedagogy, find ideas that make them stay with us, ”she said.
The Ministère de la Famille did not respond to TVA Nouvelles’ requests for an interview. Several hundred children are still registered on the Place 0-5 ans.