When will the school year start with a scent of hope, reassuring figures, and all sails set for academic success? It won’t be for 2024, unfortunately, because the arrival in class still rhymes with a shortage of school staff. With these catastrophic back-to-schools piling up, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain a good level of quality in education.
After letting the school system languish for a few days, Education Minister Bernard Drainville revealed last Friday the number of empty chairs—5,704—that the school network could have if nothing changes between now and the first days of school. There is something new this year. First, we know the extent of the problem earlier, because school service centres had to fill vacant positions by August 8 at the latest, in order to provide more stability. This is an excellent initiative that will ease the panic of the first day of school, but it does not make teachers fall out of the sky. Minister Drainville also promises that his “dashboard” will be updated weekly, in order to allow citizens to follow the evolution of the situation.
However, the minister made two blunders that do nothing to reassure education stakeholders, as well as parents and students. First, he reserved the privilege of revealing data requested by school service centres and school administrations. This contradicts his own desire for transparency and fuels fears about centralization. Second, he failed to disclose a significant portion of the picture of the shortage, since the number of education professionals—special education teachers, psychologists, psychoeducators, etc.—or support staff members—childcare educators, special education technicians—is not yet known. These players, let us remember, contribute greatly to the smooth running of schools, but also to achieving academic success objectives.
Let’s get back to academic success, because that is the future of any society. Ours shines with its culture and its uniqueness, but we would also like to add to this balance of national pride a whole educational component, and remain honored to parade our academic successes on the international stage, satisfied above all to have been able to fill the heads of our students. Will we be able to do this for much longer?
We must have the courage to ask the question. Although the shortage of teaching staff is no longer a new phenomenon, its persistence over time raises fears that the situation will worsen. The scarcity of teachers is the result of an impossible equation. First, a less attractive profession and its most natural port of entry, namely the bachelor’s degree in teaching and its precious certificate. Then, an aging population curve that naturally leads to its share of retirements, which the Ministry of Education has been predicting for years. But there is also the early abandonment of work among new teachers, of whom it has been said for ages that a quarter leave the ship within the first five years of their career. Finally, the arrival of new students on the scene — some 20,000, according to the minister — adds a level of seriousness to the problem.
Last year at this time, the Minister of Education and the Prime Minister admitted that they were looking for “the best adult” to pose in front of the class, and no longer necessarily the best teacher. Forced to do so by the shortage, Quebec has significantly reduced the requirements for entering the profession. It now has two groups of teachers: those who are legally qualified (teaching certificate, probationary permit, provisional authorization) and those who are not. The latter need a 5-year diplomae secondary school and training – not necessarily completed – relevant to higher education to be in front of a class; others, without any academic requirements, can be substitutes or teachers by the lesson. This cannot become the norm.
In a shocking report released in the spring of 2023, Quebec’s Auditor General, Guylaine Leclerc, assessed that a quarter of the teachers hired in 2020-2021 were not legally qualified. This finding raises the issue of the quality of training received by students, and therefore of their own success. Failing a quick solution to the shortage problem, school centres and schools should focus on setting up monitoring mechanisms to validate the quality of teaching. The Auditor General noted last year that they were clearly insufficient. This is an essential palliative measure.
The government should also urgently focus on those teachers who are leaving the profession when they have only just entered it. Losing these newly trained players adds a layer of distress to the already worrying phenomenon of shortages, because even the next generation no longer has the heart to stay.