“There will be a teacher in each class”

Jean-François Roberge assures that no class will be orphaned this year

Marie-Eve Morasse
The Press

In less than two months, nearly 6,000 people have applied to teach in schools in Quebec, so much so that the Minister of Education is convinced that no class will be orphaned this year. But a few days before the start of the school year, it remains “to finish the interviews, to hire and to accompany professionally” these newcomers, recognizes Jean-François Roberge.

At the start of the school year, “there will be a teacher in each class”, declared Mr. Roberge in an interview with The Press. A teacher or “someone”? we ask him.

“The person who is going to be a teacher is going to be, most of the time, someone who is legally qualified […]but it will happen, as has happened for a few years, that it is someone who has a provisional authorization to teach, ”answers the minister.

Last spring, the government launched an advertising campaign encouraging holders of a baccalaureate “in a subject taught in preschool, primary, secondary […] to consider a career in education.

This had raised the ire of some teachers, who felt that such a campaign “minimized” the role of a teacher and overlooked the difficult working conditions in schools.

The thousands of people who have registered on the government platform are “people to come and fill positions in our classes,” said the minister.

Last year, on the first day of class, there were still 400 teachers missing in Quebec schools.

No “race to the bottom”

Although the report cards were handed out at the end of June, the Minister of Education still does not know how the pupils performed in the compulsory end-of-year exams, held this year after a two-year enforced break due to the pandemic.

“I don’t have all the results yet,” says Jean-François Roberge.

How does he explain that a union of CEGEP teachers observed this week that the training of students arriving at college does not reach the expected level?

Jean-François Roberge believes that the pandemic and distance schooling have had a lot to do with it.

Before the government of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), he said, the Ministry of Education gave the passing grade to students who obtained 57% or 58%. “We have put an end to the leveling down,” observes Jean-François Roberge.

A “safe” return, assures Quebec

The government intends to distribute 14 million self-tests in the coming weeks. “It will help people manage cases, prevent outbreaks and avoid bringing COVID to school,” said the Minister of Education.

He does not believe that his ministry could have done more to improve ventilation, for example by installing air purifiers in the classrooms.

Repair work was done in the schools during the summer holidays, he recalls.

This summer, Radio-Canada reported that 53% of schools in the province are rated D or E, meaning they are in poor or very poor condition. A percentage almost unchanged since the beginning of the mandate of the CAQ, four years ago.

Figures refuted by the minister, who explains that schools that “were not on the radar screen” in the days of the Liberals were inspected under the CAQ. “There were buildings whose state of disrepair we didn’t know and as we inspected them, it darkened the picture,” he says.

It would have been impossible to invest more in school infrastructure during the CAQ mandate, believes Mr. Roberge.

“In four years, there is twice as much money [que lors du précédent mandat] which was put to maintain, renovate, enlarge the schools. We can’t do more, we lack entrepreneurs,” said the Minister.