Hundreds of students demonstrated in the streets of Montreal Thursday afternoon to demand a salary for their internship, while thousands of future teachers of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) have been on strike since mid-October .
“We’re a little tired of being treated like volunteers,” says Lena Duque, a third-year bachelor’s student in teaching French as a second language at UQAM. At our third stage we accomplish 75% of a teacher’s workload. We have to do planning and evaluations, without pay.”
“There is no policy against harassment in the internship, it is difficult to recognize,” adds her friend, Catherine Francis. “It’s important that things change for future students,” she adds. We keep being told that it’s important to have our diploma and that there is a lack of teachers. Except that nobody takes care of us, and a lot of people let go and are already at the end of their tether.
The two were participating in a demonstration with Place Émilie-Gamelin as a starting point. Students from other UQAM faculties and other universities were also on strike Thursday.
The students of the faculty of education of UQAM have been on strike for several weeks, and have renewed it until November 20. A renewal general meeting is scheduled to decide on the next steps.
“We had a few meetings with the faculty [d’éducation de l’UQAM] but the first ones were difficult, with very little progress,” says Danaë Simard, in charge of communications and mobilization for the Student Association of the Faculty of Education Sciences (ADEESE-UQAM).
“Since then, there has been more openness on certain files. But it’s something we would have liked to see earlier in the strike, she adds. After four and a half weeks of strike, it’s a little too late for this small opening. Students want more.
Future teachers recently met the new Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, to talk to her about their demands. The main struggle of the strikers is to obtain better training conditions. This includes the establishment of a faculty policy against harassment. “Currently, the two UQAM anti-harassment policies do not apply to internship environments, only within the walls of UQAM,” she explains.