Quebec continues to see teacher shortage

The new school year in Quebec is just around the corner, but the shortage of qualified teachers continues.

About 20,000 new students could be added to the province’s public elementary and secondary schools during the year.

To help cope with this influx of students, Quebec estimates that around a thousand additional teachers will need to be hired — over and above the current unfilled positions for the fall.

“We’re going into a year under resourced. Hopefully some of the resources will come throughout the school year, but it’s just so unfortunate that we’re still feeling the years and years of cuts to education that have not been reinvested yet,” said Marion Miller, a teacher.

“What happens throughout the school year is that we do resolve that deficit of teachers, but unfortunately we’re often relying on unqualified individuals to come in and fill those gaps, which is less than ideal. The idea of having an adult in every class, frankly, is not what our students in Quebec deserve students deserve to have a teacher a trained teacher in every classroom.

“And when we look at a year where we’ll have new immigrants will have new arrivals, and we’ll be unfortunately sending a lot of those students into modulars, little portable classrooms, that are set up in the parking lot. I really don’t think that’s what our students deserve in Quebec,” said Miller.

Steven Le Suer, the president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT) says, “They have class assistants, but I think that’ll help. We’ve had some pilot projects and they’re very successful. But again, it’s probably not enough to service everybody.”

Last year, Education Minister Bernard Drainville reported a shortage of over 8,500 teachers just before school year began. To prevent a repeat, Teacher Robert Green says the CAQ government must improve job security and make the teaching profession more attractive.

“And this happens every single year because the government has not created enough full-time posts to provide sort of job security for all of the teachers that are in the system,” said Robert Green, a teacher at Westmount Highschool.

“So, you know, at any given moment, you’ve got a third or more of the teaching core that don’t have job security, that are working year-to-year contracts, despite the fact that the government knows full well that their services are needed on a full-time, ongoing basis.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the Education Ministry announced a press conference scheduled for Friday in Montreal – where Drainville is set to address staffing shortages and more.

“Last June and likely this September, we were dealing with conditions of heat in our classrooms that are frankly unsuitable for learning. Students at my school were fainting in the middle of their ministry exams. At a certain point, the government needs to make the necessary investments to ensure that, that teachers are working and students are learning in conditions that are conducive to that,” said Green.

Le Suer adding, “Doing more with less and again, teachers do the best they can.”