The lack of teachers in Quebec schools concerns the Superior Council of Education (CSE), which proposes 16 recommendations in a report presented Monday to deal with “urgent needs”.
“There is a very serious shortage of teachers,” underlines the president, Monique Brodeur. There have been attempts to create diversified and accelerated training pathways, and this was of great concern to the Council.”
Qualifying master’s degrees of 60 credits have existed for some time and the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, recently gave the green light to short courses of 30 credits to obtain the teaching certificate.
In its Report on the state and needs of the population 2021-2023, the CSE instead suggests putting in place “formulas adapted for each candidate”, which could sometimes be less than 30 credits. “At a time when there is a shortage of teachers, they are perhaps better off in class with the students rather than reviewing things they already know,” believes Monique Brodeur.
A rapid qualification route based on “recognition of prior learning and skills” for people who have been trained in teaching abroad is notably proposed.
The proposal for a “qualification residency,” which would be on-the-job training for those who want to redirect their careers toward teaching, is also on the table.
Managing non-legally qualified teachers can be a very heavy task for other teachers, recognizes the CSE, and this residency could lighten it. “It’s a model that was developed in the United States and it clarifies the responsibilities of who is responsible for mentoring these people. It also comes with college courses. It allows people to work and train fairly quickly,” explains Nadine Forget-Dubois, coordinator of the Committee for the Report on the State and Needs of Education.
A brief portrait of non-legally qualified teachers, widely criticized by part of the teaching body with a certificate, was also painted in the report.
“Research shows that in general, these are people with a baccalaureate,” explains Nadine Forget-Dubois. Discussion groups were conducted by the Council with non-legally qualified teachers and some were engineers, teaching French at college or Canadian foreign affairs, she explains.
“These are people who, later in life, discovered a desire to teach,” she says. They expressed to us their desire to continue teaching and their frustration at sometimes not being able to qualify with the programs that exist because of the work-family-study balance, or because they had the impression of losing their time learning things they already know.”
The replacement of the current version of the fourth year of the baccalaureate in teaching with a “paid internship”, an “avenue which has been highly recommended”, is also proposed. “It would contribute to the financial security of students, and on the other hand it would ensure well-trained staff in schools,” thinks Monique Brodeur.