This text is part of the TÉLUQ University special notebook
If the pandemic has shaken the system already staggering, on the side of TÉLUQ University, support for the teaching staff was put in place quickly.
Over the past three years, the establishment has implemented several specific programs and training courses to respond to the issue of labor shortages in the education sector. And in this month of October, two qualifying master’s degrees designed in collaboration with the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), one in Preschool and primary education and another in Secondary education, mathematics and French concentrations, welcome their first students.
These two higher education diplomas are intended for teachers who are not legally qualified, people who hold a baccalaureate and who already work in the classrooms of Quebec, but who do not have a patent in their pocket. “What is dramatic right now is that we find ourselves with teachers in our system who are not trained to teach. It is urgent to intervene because in the end, those who suffer are the students,” says Mario Richard, professor in the Department of Education at TÉLUQ University. It is about 4000 unqualified teachers who were in schools in Quebec in 2020-2021, not counting those who perform substitution, a consequence of the lack of crying staff in the middle. Thus, the first registrants in the master’s programs, which start in October, will follow their asynchronous courses part-time over a long five-year course.
“We are talking to people who work, and who therefore have an issue of reconciling studies and work, but also family and work,” explains Mr. Richard. The courses are oriented towards practice: the aim of the exercise is above all to equip the workers. “We want people who are already in the classroom because the goal is to work to find a solution to the shortage situation that we currently have in our system,” continues the professor.
TÉLUQ University also offers a DESS in preschool education and primary education. A certificate piloted by UQAT is offered in collaboration with several Quebec universities to support secondary education, as well as a series of refresher courses aimed at teachers who have been trained outside the Canada. All of this offer is focused on retaining staff: rather than recruiting young people with a bachelor’s degree in education, TÉLUQ University has chosen to rely on people who know the reality of the province’s classrooms. “People who are in practice have chosen teaching. Let’s help them,” says Mr. Richard.
Teaching remotely… as it should be
On April 15, 2020, at the dawn of night, Cathia Papi, professor in the Department of Education at TÉLUQ University, received an impromptu call from the Ministry of Education: the firm wanted to set up training on distance education. free for all teachers in Quebec. Twenty-four hours later, a training plan is accepted and the machine starts working.
Cathia Papi and her team at TÉLUQ University are mobilizing all the strengths of the establishment and involving numerous collaborators, particularly at the primary and secondary levels, in order to develop a broad-based program. “It was complex since it involved training teachers at all levels of education and all disciplines,” says the professor. In just four months, a “record time”, the free training was set up and made available on the Université TÉLUQ site.
Since then, more than 274,000 visitors from 186 countries have consulted the “J’enseignement à distance” homepage, which includes a common toolbox for all training, support elements and pedagogical elements. adapted to each level of education. The training takes about fifteen hours, roughly speaking. “People have often thought of giving technical training, but the educational part was missing, which, in my opinion, is the most important,” emphasizes Cathia Papi. For her, the success of “I teach at a distance” lies in this problem, which we should have looked into long before the pandemic, she believes.
In Ontario, for example, distance education at the elementary and secondary levels is much more developed than in Quebec, and this delay was felt when the pandemic arrived. “When we are at a distance, we do not do the same activities as when we are in class. We really have to rethink things and above all we have to give teachers time to do it, ”concludes Ms.me Grandpa.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, relating to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.