The next generation is starting to be lacking among school principals, who are out of breath and suffering from a lack of recognition after two years of upheaval due to the pandemic.
According to what The duty has learned, the banks of candidates for principal or vice-principal positions are empty in a series of service centers. The Quebec Federation of School Principals (FQDE) indicates that barely 69 teachers have indicated their interest in the positions of school principal in 42 school service centers.
According to the FQDE, the relief banks are empty or stripped in Laval and elsewhere in the north crown of Montreal, where the school network is under increasing pressure due to population growth.
“Our members have been at the front for two years, they work evenings and weekends, but they don’t get recognition. There is a lot of work to be done to promote the profession,” says Nicolas Prévost, president of the FQDE.
The working conditions of school principals have remained unchanged since April 2019. Their salary increases are generally modeled on those granted to teachers, but discussions with Quebec have been delayed because of the pandemic. Negotiations have just started, our sources indicate.
Impatience wins the ranks of directors and directors. Since last year’s “historic” salary increases for teachers, principals and vice-principals find themselves in an absurd situation: they earn less than their teachers at the top of the salary scale.
In addition to the new employment contracts, the management is demanding a COVID bonus like those granted to managers in the health network. The Ministère de l’Éducation and the Secretariat of the Conseil du trésor have so far remained insensitive to these requests. Ministers Jean-François Roberge (Education) and Sonia Le Bel (Treasury Board) declined our interview requests.
“Feeling of injustice”
“School principals experience a feeling of injustice,” says Emmanuel Poirel, professor at the Faculty of Education at the Université de Montréal.
He and his team are carrying out an investigation into the working conditions of establishment directors. The professor indicates that this job category is both the most tested by the upheavals of the pandemic in the school environment and the most stimulating for candidates in search of challenges.
“These are people with great professional ethics. They feel responsible” for the proper functioning of the schools and the success of the students, explains Emmanuel Poirel.
The professor’s research group interviewed 1,157 school principals or vice-principals (about a third of the total in Quebec) through an online questionnaire distributed just before the start of the pandemic. At the start of 2020, 98% of them noted that they worked intensely and 87% mentioned that the emotional demands of the job were very high.
Emmanuel Poirel’s team has distributed other questionnaires in recent weeks, but it is clear, according to the professor, that the working conditions of school principals have become more difficult with the pandemic. Principals must manage ever-changing health measures, staff and parent anxiety, student mental health and achievement, and countless absences due to COVID-19.
The shock of the profession
“Many do not have an assistant because of the shortage of personnel. They have to manage forty employees on their own in addition to all the other responsibilities. There are small businesses that have a lot more managers,” emphasizes Emmanuel Poirel.
School principals were granted 10 days of “COVID leave” last year, half of which was redeemable. They are claiming financial compensation this year, because they can hardly take leave because of the work overload.
Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Principals (AMDES), reports that young school principals are shocked when they see the challenges of the profession. “There are vice principals who are considering returning to teaching,” she said.
The explosion in the number of non-legally qualified teachers – because of the shortage – increases the workload of the management, which must train “on the job” these new teachers. The difficulty of finding accommodation in Montreal also discourages candidates who prefer to turn to the suburbs, where housing costs are less prohibitive, underlines Kathleen Legault.