What are the solutions to attract and keep teachers in the classrooms? While employers’ offers will be tabled on Thursday as part of the negotiations for public sector collective agreements, Quebec’s largest teachers’ union is proposing a new “innovative” approach to class composition, which aims to better take into account students with difficulties.
“We want to break away from the ‘wall to wall’ and traditional ratios, which require that for such and such a class, no more than 20 or 26 students are needed”, explains Denis St-Hilaire, spokesperson for the negotiations and director general of the Fédération des unions de l’enseignement du Québec (FSE-CSQ), in a long interview with The duty.
Teachers sometimes have a large number of students with learning difficulties or behavioral problems in their class and quickly feel overwhelmed and exhausted. The union wants “tailor-made” classes, according to the profile of the students who will make up the group, and that this is what determines their size.
“If 22 students are doing well, there can be 22 in the group. But if 14 students have a problem, for example to master the language, in mathematics, behavior or learning difficulties, you have to compose the group with the right number, ”he underlines. “I’m not shy about talking about a small revolution, because it’s still quite innovative [comme approche] “, he adds.
There are currently three categories of students considered in the composition of the group: severe behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorder and psychopathological disorders. The children affected can be worth 2, 2.5 or 2.6 pupils. “It’s a bit of a system like this that we’re going to propose to our counterparts,” says Denis St-Hilaire.
The collective agreements expire on March 31, and the FSE-CSQ, which represents 87,000 teachers in school service centres, presented its demands in principle to the government on October 31. A few dozen other proposals concerning the composition of the classes will be submitted in a complementary way next March. A consultation was carried out and 15,000 teachers responded to the call, which helped the union formulate its demands. The Treasury Board must for its part announce its proposals Thursday morning.
“The company made the choice a few years ago to integrate students in difficulty into the classes, but we also had the promise that there would be services. They never followed, and the class continued to deteriorate, adds the president of the FSE-CSQ, Josée Scalabrini. The next agreement cannot be signed without there being a concrete improvement in the composition of the class. »
Changing the class composition formula will, however, have to be accompanied by a change in the way funding works, which could prove to be a challenge. It could also involve creating more groups, in a context where teachers may be lacking. “We know that the shortage does not exist in the same way everywhere in Quebec, mentions Denis St-Hilaire. There are places where we will be able to generate the number of groups needed. In other places, the question arises whether this can be done gradually, over several years, with transitional measures. »
Lighten the tasks
Teachers leave at the start of their careers, but also as they approach retirement, which worries the union, which wants better conditions. “They say to themselves that before falling ill, it is better to leave, launches Josée Scalabrini. The shortage is accentuated. The FSE particularly wishes to add recovery days for teachers at the end of their careers.
In addition to the composition of the classes, the lightening of the tasks is also part of the heart of the concerns. The union proposes to find tasks that can be entrusted to support staff, for example supervising recess. We also want to free teachers from administrative tasks so that they can devote themselves more to teaching.
There is currently a class support pilot project in several schools, in which the work of teachers is lightened. “For the moment, we see that the teachers do not want to lose this support, and that the assistants appreciate the work they do”, underlines Josée Scalabrini.