Quebec teachers say students’ behaviours are getting worse: new report

The Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement (FSE-CSQ) conducted a consultation with 7,000 teachers in Quebec about the incivility that teachers face daily at work.

The poll was conducted in October 2024.

According to the results, 83 per cent of teachers said they believe that rudeness has increased over the last two years and 56 per cent of teachers are victims to these poor behaviours at least one to four times a day. The proportion is higher amongst teachers in preschool and primary school (63 per cent).

Also, teachers said that the offensive behaviours harm students’ concentration (96 per cent) and reduces the time spent on learning (93 per cent).

“Solutions absolutely must be put in place to curb and ultimately eliminate this trend,” said FSE-CSQ President Richard Bergevin. “Working on it means improving the daily lives of teachers by giving them more time to teach, which contributes to their motivation at work. This would also significantly improve the learning climate in the classroom.”

Teachers say these poor behaviours leads to work overloads (83 per cent) and reduces their motivation at work (83 per cent).

Nearly a third of respondents said they were victims of incivility from a parent at least once a month.

In the consultation, teachers were asked about possible solutions to improve behaviours in the classrooms:

-Teach expected behaviors and raise awareness about the importance of acting civilly

-Apply sanctions to students who repeatedly display incivility

-Provide remedial actions or community service for students who repeatedly engage in the same behaviours

-Provide training to students, accompanied by their parents, if necessary

“The results of this consultation are unequivocal. The incivility experienced by teachers seriously undermines their daily lives. To protect teachers, we must act collectively. Recently, the government signaled that it wanted to tackle this problem head on. We welcome this motion. However, we ask that they involve teachers while searching solutions so that they truly meet the needs of the communities,” concluded Bergevin.