A union believes that Quebec teachers are not ready to teach the Culture and Quebec Citizenship (CCQ) course, which must be on the program from the next school year to replace the Ethics and Religious Culture (ECR) course.
A little less than half (45%) of the teachers who will have to give the CCQ course starting in August have received training to do so, according to the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ). The teaching union revealed Monday the results of a survey it conducted, from April 30 to May 6, among 2,675 people who teach ECR or CCQ courses.
The vast majority of teachers surveyed (81%) believe “that they are not sufficiently trained and equipped to teach the program in just a few months,” deplores the FSE. Among the respondents, 68% believe that they “do not have the material or technical resources necessary to teach the program”. The union also indicates that there is “no training for teaching staff in special education.”
The FSE points the finger at school service centers which, in certain cases, do not offer training or cancel it due to a shortage of substitutes.
At the time these lines were written, the office of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, was not able to confirm accessibility to training in all CSSs in Quebec.
” It will be alright “
The minister, however, stressed that the training is accessible online at all times. In the press scrum, he gave figures suggesting that around 11,000 teachers had received this training. There are more than 100,000 teachers in Quebec, but not all of them will be called upon to teach the Quebec Culture and Citizenship course.
“We are confident that things will go well,” said Mr. Drainville. He recalled that the addition of the course to the timetable – replacing the ECR course – had already been postponed for a year, “at the request in particular of the unions”.
At the time, union groups sounded the alarm, in a context where the educational materials were not ready. A year later, the textbooks are not yet available, but the Drainville firm says it hopes to distribute them in the network to all school levels (with the exception of the fourth and fifth years of secondary school) by the next school year. “No teaching materials have been approved by the ministry. It should be done at the end of August, but it’s really too late,” the FSE underlined on this subject.
For his part, Minister Drainville said “we accept the fact that a teacher who starts a new course does not feel 100% equipped.” “It’s normal,” he stressed.
The elected official added that the CCQ course was “very important”, since it will focus on “very contemporary issues”, such as respect, consent, social networks, sexual education, citizenship, secularism and managing emotions. “All these issues are important and, therefore, this course must move forward, even if there are adjustments over time,” he argued.