With less than two weeks to go back to school, school administrators are in a race against time to ensure that every class, primary and secondary, has a homeroom teacher. More than 700 teachers remain to be hired, but Minister Jean-François Roberge says he is confident that all students will have a teacher.
“School directors hunt for teachers. The shortage of staff seems more intense than ever, ”summarizes an influential source in the school network.
The Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, revealed Thursday to the host Paul Arcand, of 98.5 FM, that 700 teaching posts remain to be filled for the start of the school year. He admitted that an unknown number of them will be “not legally qualified” and will have a temporary authorization to meet in front of a group of students.
This uncertainty opens the way to a scenario that has been repeated every year for four or five years, deplores Patricia Clermont, spokesperson for the movement “I protect my public school”: “The replacements will follow one another in certain classes. Groups will have five, six, seven alternates in no time. This is unacceptable, especially for younger students, who need an emotional connection to their homeroom teacher. »
Already, parents and their children are wondering if there will be a teacher in the class and “for how long he will be there”, says Patricia Clermont.
In the school network, it is considered that the presence of non-legally qualified teachers increases the task of experienced teachers, who must supervise newcomers to the profession. These professors without patent are generally full of good will and motivated, but need accompaniment, indicate several sources.
Depleted Alternate Banks
A significant portion of qualified teachers, who come out of universities, also require support, underlines Jean-François Guilbault, president of the Syndicat de Champlain, in Montérégie. “Recruitment has been very very very intensive in the last few months. Service centers snapped up teaching graduates as early as last spring,” he says.
The banks of substitutes are almost empty even before the start of the school year, explains the union representative. There are many more job postings than applicants in school service centers on the South Shore.
At the service center of the Patriots, about fifty full-time tasks and a hundred part-time are displayed, according to Jean-François Guilbault. At the Vallée-des-Tisserands service center in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, around 100 contracts are also offered. Recruitment is particularly difficult in special education, he specifies.
The shortage also affects other categories of school personnel: 194 educator positions in school daycare, 31 attendant positions for handicapped students and 14 special education technician positions are posted in schools where the personnel are affiliated with the Syndicat de Champlain.
Secondary school teachers are also in demand. At the Center de services scolaire des Mille-Îles, at the beginning of the week, 41 full-time French teaching tasks were posted, and about ten part-time. Some 23 candidates were on the priority list.
“What is different from before is that the tasks displayed are attractive. We are talking about full-time positions, some of which open the way to tenure. But they can’t find any candidates, ”says a teacher who requested anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the media.
Upgrading the profession
The number of posted positions varies from hour to hour in the network, because the assignment sessions are in progress or to come in the school service centers, underlines the office of Minister Roberge. The figure of 700 positions to be filled is preliminary and comes from data collection which began on August 15, specifies Audrey Noiseux, press officer for the Minister of Education.
“We will continue to survey over the next few weeks and we will then be able to make a judgment on the evolution compared to previous years”, she underlines.
The minister attributes the shortage to decades of devaluation of the education professions. He recalls having taken a series of initiatives to encourage applications: historic improvement in the working conditions of teachers, creation of qualifying master’s degrees (which are not unanimous) to quickly train teachers, mentoring program for young teachers, massive investments to build and renovate schools…
For its part, the Center de services scolaire des Navigateurs, in Lévis, has launched a recruitment campaign for the start of the school year. Advertising in the media and on social networks, billboards along Highway 20, and recruitment day, next Monday, which will make it possible to meet a hundred candidates: the service center is doing everything possible to ensure that each class has a teacher, explains spokesperson Louise Boisvert.
All categories of employees are sought: teachers, support staff, professionals, school administrators and school executives, she underlines.