Faced with a growing number of non-legally qualified teachers in the school network, Quebec will unveil on Wednesday a new one-stop shop where services aimed at supporting them in obtaining their certification will be concentrated.
The staff at the “I obtain my certificate” counter will have the mandate to contact individually all non-legally qualified teachers working in the network to support them in additional training.
As of May 20, 2024, the Ministry of Education calculated that 8,871 unqualified teachers were working in the school network, that is to say without a teaching certificate, a number which has continued to grow in recent years. years.
Data for this year are expected shortly while information collection was recently launched in the school network.
With the creation of this new window, the details of which will be announced this Wednesday, Quebec is repatriating the task of convincing non-legally qualified teachers to obtain their certificate and guiding them in the process.
Until now, this mission fell to the human resources teams of school service centers who sometimes considered it cumbersome and complex. What’s more, this mandate could be carried out in variable geometry depending on the establishment.
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, however, identified in January 2023 the creation of a fast track to the teaching certificate as one of his seven priorities to restore the school network.
A high goal
Six short training programs of 2e cycle of 30 credits, or less than the qualifying master’s degree of 60 credits, leading to the teaching certificate have thus been put in place, notably at TELUQ, but also at UQAT and UQAM. Others are expected next January.
Teachers who can register for these short courses must already hold a bachelor’s degree in a subject related to the one they teach. They can thus obtain the teaching credits they lack to obtain the certificate.
However, these shortened training courses were strongly criticized not only by teaching unions, but also by student teaching associations. “These short programs end with a probationary internship, producing teachers of proven competence. Moreover, most of the students enrolled in these courses already teach in class, but without a certificate,” argued Bernard Drainville’s office last January.
In 2023-2024, the Ministry of Education had the objective of having 1,000 people register for these new training courses. He barely got there, with 1042 registrations.
But the next step is high, with a target of 1,500 new registrations for 2024-2025.
An objective to which the “I obtain my patent” window must contribute, in particular by making known the different university programs available and their registration procedures.