As the start of the school year approaches, school principals do not know how many positions are still vacant in schools, since the ministry refuses to share its figures before a statement by Minister Bernard Drainville and the updating of its “dashboard”.
“Yes, we tried [d’avoir les chiffres]”The ministry doesn’t want to. They’re really waiting until after Mr. Drainville’s press conference. This is the first year it’s been like this,” declared Nicolas Prévost, president of the Fédération québécoise des directions d’établissement d’enseignement, on Tuesday.
“It’s certain that the ministry has these figures in its hands, but it really wanted it to be a ministerial announcement this year.”
Education Minister Bernard Drainville is scheduled to meet with the media in the coming days to provide an overview of the staff shortage. School service centres (CSS) had until last Friday to send the ministry information on positions that were still vacant. The ministry is projecting an increase of about 20,000 students for the coming school year — equivalent to a need for 1,000 additional teachers. The projected increase is nearly identical to that observed in the previous year, according to data from the ministry’s dashboard.
Pending an update on vacancies, The Duty asked various CSSs in Quebec for data on teaching positions that were still vacant. The CSSs that responded to our request all directed us to the Ministry of Education.
“The dashboard will be updated shortly when the data analysis is complete,” said the ministry’s press relations manager, Esther Chouinard, without providing figures.
At the CSS de Montréal, the media relations department reported an “intensive” recruitment process that lasts all year. “We have to put things in perspective: although our needs are significant, the majority of assignments or positions are filled,” it wrote in an email. The CSS de la Capitale responded that “the recruitment process is ongoing,” without providing further details.
Same as last year?
Last year, Minister Drainville met with the media at the start of the school year to announce that the school network was short of more than 8,000 teachers. The elected official denounced the difficult access to the various data held by the CSS. A year later, he is using these figures to update his dashboard. On Tuesday, it provided figures from May 20. At that date, the network was short of more than 2,000 employees, including 471 teachers.
As the start of the school year approaches, Nicolas Prévost relies on discussions with his colleagues and says he expects a shortage similar to that seen last year among teaching staff. “It is much more difficult, however, to find support staff, including special education technicians and, especially, daycare educators. This is really the job category where the situation is more difficult than last year, according to what people tell me,” he said. Mr. Prévost assumes that some daycare educators have given up their jobs in favour of classroom assistant positions.
Mr. Prévost also notes a shortage of staff in management positions. “We had a good wave of resignations at the end of last year,” he noted. “We still have about 70 positions where there is no school principal or assistant principal. That was pretty much the same thing last year. […] But three or four years ago, it was zero,” he said.
The working conditions of school principals are the subject of a government decree, usually modeled on the employment contract of teachers. In January, teachers signed agreements providing for salary increases of up to 24% over five years. The employment contract of school principals expired in April 2023, “and there are still no discussions that have begun, although we have made requests,” stressed Mr. Prévost.
The “race against time”
The deputy president and CEO of the Federation of School Service Centers of Quebec, Dominique Robert, told the Duty that the CSS were “working hard” to counter the effects of the staff shortage.
“It is clear that the shortage is still present, but there are actions that are carried out daily by all CSS to ensure that there is the necessary staff in the classes for the start of the school year and [pour] mitigate [la pénurie] “to the maximum,” he assured. “Between now and the start of the school year, it’s a race against time to ensure that all classes are filled for the next year.”
The president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, Éric Gingras, said for his part that he expects to “see figures that are high” when the minister reveals the number of positions to be filled. He also expressed concern about the CSS’s decision not to share data until Mr. Drainville holds a press conference. “I am not surprised by this desire for centralization. We have said that this is not the right way to do things,” he said.