Almost a month after the start of the strike movement initiated by the various unions, the much-hoped-for truce is still delayed. For all students whose schools are affiliated with the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE), the indefinite general strike has continued since November 23. This forced pause will not be without impact on the success of the most vulnerable.
Ironically, it is around the most vulnerable group at school that the current negotiation in education is taking place. Both the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ) and the FAE articulate their main demand around what is called class composition. Teachers no longer find anything from the so-called “ordinary” class, and children with multiple needs are added to their groups. They hope that we can lighten their daily lives by reviewing the way of forming groups.
They therefore ask that the teacher-student ratio be lowered in the composition of classes; they want an increase in the amounts allocated to class composition; and they hope that we add “weightings” to those that already exist — the weighting is a value assigned to a handicapped student or student with social maladjustments or learning difficulties, which takes into account their difficulty and their academic level. Thus, one child with a significant difficulty will be worth two when composing the class. Breathless, given the galloping increase in students in difficulty, teachers hope that this negotiation will give them a breath of fresh air. We honestly can’t blame them for hoping that such a problem will finally be resolved.
This is not the first time that students in difficulty find themselves at the heart of the renewal of teachers’ agreements. Since the adoption of the special education policy in 2000, it is a refrain that keeps coming back. However, a major difference separates the demands of yesteryear from those which keep the parties at the table these days: the absolute lack of human resources, this famous shortage of teaching staff which stands like a wall between hopes and reality.
The most recent official data collected by the Auditor General of Quebec allowed her to affirm, in 2023, that around a quarter of teachers in public schools in Quebec do not hold a proper teaching certificate, and therefore , do not meet the usual hiring criteria. In other words, in order to avoid being cut off from educational services, Quebec is now falling back on those who do not have the certificate, but who have something else very precious: fervent enthusiasm and desire to reinvent itself with students as a second career. We cannot afford to shy away from this enthusiasm, which has become too rare.
The latest report from the Higher Education Council (CSE) brilliantly addresses this elephant in the negotiation that is the staff shortage. After rigorous interviews and analysis, the authors of the report bluntly arrive at this conclusion: Quebec does not have the means to quibble in the face of this unprecedented lack of resources. It must make a brave face against bad luck and welcome these newcomers to education with wide open arms, even if it means providing the necessary flexibility in teacher training programs and the recognition of equivalences and skills to speed up the process. Rather than singing the lament of leveling down, those involved in the education network must face this issue with the pragmatism it requires.
In this report, only one question emerges: do we have other options? See for yourself: before even thinking about improving the composition of the class, as the unions want, the situation already looks like a catastrophe. The shortage even affects the bank of substitutes, and we have to resort to teachers to replace colleagues; the good intentions of mentoring, intended to support the less experienced to prevent them from deserting the profession too quickly, have completely collapsed; the massive entry of new teachers without a certificate also weighs heavily on the backs of veterans, who must support them. In this context, the integration of new certified teachers and the supervision of trainees fall by the wayside. It is a catastrophic portrait.
In this trying context, Quebec cannot do otherwise than reverse the trend and welcome people who teach without a certificate in schools as a “sign of hope”, as noted by the CSE, rather than describe the situation. Since there are fewer students in the faculties of education, since retirement forecasts will accentuate the crisis by 2030, and since certain new teachers desert the profession quickly after taking up their duties, Quebec cannot make the fine line mouth. It must make its entry routes into the teaching profession more flexible and facilitate the integration of those who feel called by the mission of teaching.