After a week of school, many students still do not have an assigned teacher in certain courses and are busy on their cell phones in class, while substitutes follow one another and management tears their hair out to recruit personal.
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“I’m starting to get really, really worried,” says Annie Bélanger, a mother from Terrebonne.
For the second year in a row, her 15-year-old son is going back to school without a math teacher.
Last year, he attended a school in Rivière-des-Prairies, Montreal. For weeks, he watched the substitutes parade. The teacher who finally took care of the course was not specialized in math.
For months, her son “didn’t understand anything”, like most of the class, says Mme Belanger. “It went from 88% to 72%”, she illustrates.
The little family then moved to Terrebonne at the beginning of winter, and the child was able to end the year in style at Armand-Corbeil school. But this fall, the scenario is repeated.
“The substitutes tell them: ‘Pick up your phone and do what you want’,” reports Mme Belanger.
“This is not the instruction that was given,” explains Éric Ladouceur, of the general secretariat of the Affluents school service center, where there are still six secondary math teacher positions to be filled.
In the meantime, recovery periods are offered to these students, he says. “We want as much stability as possible. »
Worse than before
In mid-August, the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, assured La Presse that there would be a teacher in each class for the start of the school year. But on the ground, the situation is alarming.
“It’s the worst year,” sighs Nicolas Prévost, president of the Quebec Federation of Educational Establishment Directors (FQDE).
As of Sunday, there were still 150 full-time positions to fill just in the schools of the 2,200 members that the Federation represents, according to an in-house survey.
Nicolas Prévost gives approximate figures to illustrate the portrait: if it lacked 700 teachers at the beginning of the year, the network could recruit a hundred per day, on average. This year, he estimates that number at 30 or 40.
musical chair
“We go through plan A, plan B, plan C. And despite everything, I still have no more options. »
We can therefore already believe that some groups will not have a stable teacher for weeks or even months. ” Or [subir] a musical chair in the classes which will have three, four, five different teachers during the year”, fears Mr. Prévost.
Because in addition to recruitment, retaining staff is also difficult, recalls Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Principals (AMDES).
“A director told me that one of her teachers came to give her lesson in the morning and then gave her keys at dinnertime,” she illustrates.
“Bad timing” for struggling students
The shortage that leaves some classes without teachers comes at the worst time for struggling students, who have fallen behind due to the two pandemic years.
Nancy Lyonnais’ son, Wylliam 12, has just started secondary school at the Bernard-Gariépy school in Sorel-Tracy. Since the start of the school year, he has only had substitutes in his math classes.
Before the pandemic, the boy had ease in this matter. But with distance learning, he has fallen behind, says his mother. “If it lasts too long, I’ll take the bull by the horns and seek help elsewhere,” she says impatiently.
For her, as for many parents, it is a very “bad timing to now have to suffer the perverse effects of the staff shortage.
Fewer student services
“The pandemic has left its mark, but our specialized resources are busy elsewhere or are not there,” laments Kathleen Legault of the Montreal Association of School Principals (AMDES).
“Everyone is under pressure. We are still running to find adults to watch over our students. There is also a lack of staff in daycare services, there is a lack of bus drivers,” she lists.
In some cases, the only solution to the shortage is to assign classes or courses to remedial teachers, special educators and other workers who are supposed to support students in difficulty.
Not informed
It was from the mouth of their own child that the two mothers interviewed learned that he did not yet have a math teacher.
“Parent meetings begin this week,” notes Sylvain Martel of the Regroupement des Comités de Parents Autonomes. Some parents who were unaware of the impact of the lack of teachers could therefore have a bad surprise in the coming days. »
At the time of publication, neither the Sorel-Tracy school service center nor the Pointe-de-l’Île school service center nor the Ministry of Education had answered our questions.