5,704 teaching positions still to be filled: Quebec Education Minister

With just a few days to go before the start of the new school year, there are still 5,704 teaching positions to be filled in Quebec, announced Education Minister Bernard Drainville on Friday.

This is some 2,800 fewer than at the same time last year, about 33 per cent less, he said at a press conference in Montreal, as he updated the vacant positions in schools.

“What I’m announcing today is positive,” said Drainville. “There are no magic solutions to the shortage, but we work every day for our students, our parents and our staff.”

The education workforce shortage remains a major issue, however, as the network will have to accommodate up to 20,000 more students this year than last, according to Drainville.

Of the 5,704 teaching positions to be filled, 1,406 are regular full-time positions and 4,298 are contract positions, of which 1,144 are full-time and 3,154 are part-time, he added.

“Our goal is to fill the vacant positions for all of them if possible”

“It is certainly not normal to begin a new school year sitting in the classroom and not having a teacher because the process of hiring has not been finalized,” Drainville said. “This is not normal and this is why we’ve decided to change this process, a process which in many ways was putting administrative constraints ahead of the wellbeing of our students.”

For its part, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) pointed out that, despite the signing of new collective agreements with public sector workers, the education network is still grappling with numerous problems, including a shortage of staff “at all levels”

Westmount High Social science teacher Robert Green says the news is concerning despite the increase from last year. In recent days, unions have pointed out that, despite the signing of new collective agreements, the education network is still grappling with a staff shortage.

“What I didn’t hear from the minister at all this year or last year was any kind of real plan to kind of go to the root of this problem and address this crisis,” Green said.

Sounding the alarms

Green, who has been teaching for nearly two decades believes more should be done across all sectors.

“Teachers in Quebec have been ringing the alarm bells about the growing number of students in our classrooms with special needs who become discipline issues when their needs are not met,” Green said.

Green added that a wide variety of problems have continued to rise as things have become more difficult for students to learn in a productive way.

Drainville said that hired teachers will make $65,000 annually and after 13 years they will be eligible to make $109,000. He hopes this increase will help alleviate the current stressors saying it will send a very positive signal for the next generation of teachers. 

“The last collective agreement that we’ve just signed is a, if you put together all of the measures, it adds up to an historic investment in education,” Drainville said.

Green added that he and colleagues have a hard time maintaining an adequate staff, with most of them teaching without any job security, saying he worries the cycle will continue from last year. Green said he is still perplexed after revealing that a teacher of 16 years was let go last year.

“Like how is that possible in the middle of a teaching shortage? And it just speaks to a system that doesn’t make sense and a system that is in no way adapted to the reality that Quebecers are faced with in terms of our education system.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews/ With files from The Canadian Press