The Parti Québécois (PQ) accuses the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, of withholding information about the shortage of staff in schools.
“The data is there, Quebec has it, but for reasons that are strictly political, the minister refuses to transmit it,” lamented MP Pascal Bérubé on Thursday. School service centres (CSS) have so far refused to share the data they have on hand on this subject.
According to the Fédération des centres de services scolaires du Québec (FCSSQ), the CSS made this decision to avoid creating concern among the population, since the numbers regarding the shortage change quickly as positions are filled. “The CSS did not want to give them right away because they had recruitment activities this week,” explained Caroline Dupré, President and CEO of the FCSSQ.
The CSSs sent the ministry data on vacant positions over the weekend. Minister Drainville must report these figures on Friday and update his dashboard. However, the PQ asked him on Thursday to act more quickly by transmitting “immediately the information concerning the teaching positions to be filled.”
“The Parti Québécois denounces the withholding of information in complete contradiction with the intentions displayed by the government when it announced the education dashboard,” the party said. “The minister said [au] “The Minister of Education, Science and Technology, has called the dashboard a “bad exercise in transparency” last winter: it is time for this transparency to be something other than a slogan. The Minister should provide school administrations with the data they need to prepare for the return to school as soon as possible,” added MP Bérubé.
In his opinion, this is an “example of centralization of decisions in Quebec” and “the lack of consideration shown by the minister’s office towards school management.”
The president of the Quebec Federation of Educational Institution Directors, Nicolas Prévost, declared to the Duty Tuesday that the directors were unable to obtain figures before the press briefing of Minister Drainville. The CSS to whom The Duty asked to quantify the shortage, they all directed us to the Ministry of Education.
CSS has all the information, according to Quebec
In a written statement, Minister Drainville’s press attaché clarified that the cabinet “does not withhold any information necessary for the proper management of schools.”
“The school service centres have all the information concerning the schools in their territory, they are responsible for providing us with the data and carrying out class assignments. They do this in collaboration with the school principals. They have everything in hand to continue recruiting, as is the case in several CSSs,” wrote Antoine de la Durantaye.
Until the minister’s press briefing, Mr. de la Durantaye believes that it is “normal that we take the time to do the job well in order to give Quebecers the most accurate picture possible.” Subsequently, the dashboard will be updated “every week, as promised,” he assured.
The FCSSQ also suggested that the population be patient. “Let’s remember what happened last year: data came out quickly, and it made for a kind of unattractive picture! But it was the first step in the allocations,” stressed M.me Dupré: In two weeks last year, the number of positions to be filled went from 8,000 to 1,829.
Under new collective agreements, many teachers are learning their assignments earlier than usual this year. “I think that will help,” said M.me Dupré. “All these people that we confirmed very close to the start of the school year [auparavant]we confirmed them before. So I dare to hope that we will have a figure lower than 8,000. But at the end of the exercise, we will still be short of some,” added Nancy Thivierge, director of labor relations at the FCSSQ.
The ministry is projecting an increase of about 20,000 students for the coming school year — equivalent to a need for 1,000 additional teachers. The projected increase is nearly identical to that observed in the previous year, according to data from the ministry’s dashboard.